
Class. UTlOi 
Book i l?s 34 
GopigM?. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSE 








d' 



Q 



* 



013/ 



THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT 



OK 



THE OLD HOUSE OF BONDAGE UNDER 
NEW MASTERS 



By EDWIN DE LEON 

EX-VJENT AND OONSUL-GENEEAI. IN EGYPT 



OTttf) Kllustratfons. 



.J 







) 



NEW YORK 

HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS 

FRANKLIN SQCAHE 

187S 









Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by 

Harper & Brothers, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



PKEFACE. 

THE AUTHOE'S APOLOGY. 



What can anybody have to tell us about the Nile-land 
that has not already been said or sung ad nauseam ? 

Painfully conscious of the fact, that the collected bulk 
of all the writings on Egypt, if laid one above the other, 
would rival the height and magnitude of one of the 
smaller Pyramids, the present writer pleads as an 
apology, for contributing another stone to the tumulus, 
his exceptional advantages of many years' residence in 
Egypt in an official capacity, his intimate public and 
private relations with the last three Rulers — including 
the present Khedive — and his recent return from that 
country, which he left in April last. He therefore be- 
lieves he has much to say about the Khedive's Egypt 
that is new, and, as he trusts, interesting — not only to 
the general reader, but to the thoughtful student of 
man and history as well. Written in no partisan or 
partial spirit, this book professes to give a photographic 
picture of the changes wrought in the old "House of 
Bondage " by Mehemet Ali and his successors ; and its 
true condition, social, political, and economical, to-day, 



IV PEEFACE. 

when the second dawn of a new civilisation seems break- 
ing over that portion of the East which hailed the first, 
long ere Greece or Home had emerged from the " double 
darkness of Night, and of Night's daughter, Ignorance." 

In this belief he entrusts his book to the tender mercies 
of the public, and the tougher charities of the critics — 
admitting in advance, most cheerfully, that it is not " one 
of those books no gentleman's library should be without," 
against which Charles Lamb so solemnly cautioned his 
young friend. All the facts and figures this book con- 
tains have been collected on the spot, and verified, as far 
as possible ; and the writer is quite sure that, as he " has 
nothing extenuated," neither has he " set down aught in 
malice," concerning a country and a people, for both of 
which he entertains a sincere affection. 

London, <July, 1877. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

EASTWARD HO ! FROM SOUTHAMPTON TO PORT SAID. 

PACK 

Leave Southampton on P. and 0. steamer — The three chief routes 
to Egypt — " Biscay's sleepless hay " — Sudden step from winter 
to spring — The Rock and "Rock scorpions" — Remnants of 
Spanish and Moorish occupation — Fruit and flower markets in 
mid-winter — Malta and the Maltese — Marine theatricals — Port 
Sa'id — First glimpses — The peculiarities of place and people — 
Off by canal by moonlight for Ismailia ..... 1 

CHAPTER II. 

ISMAILIA — THE DESERT — CAIRO. 

Reach Ismailia at sunrise — First view — The Custom-house 
nuisance again — The faith in things unseen — The Hotel Paris 
— A truly Parisian cuisine — Stroll over the town — Its public 
and private gardens — Peculiar charms of this oasis in the desert 
— The railway route, via Zagazig, to Cairo — Along the Fresh- 
Water Canal — Should the Chinese coolie be imported ? — The 
Suez Canal and Euphrates Railway route — Some facts and 
figures about the Suez Canal — Mention of one of its founders . 23 

CHAPTER III. 

OLD AND NEW CAIRO. 

Approach to Cairo — Sights and scenes en route — Wayside vieAVs 
and voices — " Backsheesh, Howadji ! " the same old tune — 
Nature and man unchanged — Startling changes in the environs 
of Cairo — Disappearance of walls and appearance of new boule- 
vards, a la Haussmann — Surprises in store for the returning 
pilgrim after ten years' , absence — What cannot now be seen 
from Shepheard's balcony — Cairo as it was and as it is — The 
old quarter and the new ........ 47 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE FOUNDERS OF THE DYNASTY. 

PAGE 

Mehemet Ali — Soldier of fortune — Satrap and Viceroy — Parallel 
between the Napoleons of the East and of the West — His 
strange career — Dreams of an Arab empire, like that of the 
Caliphs — Why he failed in establishing it — England's interpo- 
sition — Page of the trapped lion — Cloudy close of a bright day 
— Personal traits and anecdotes of Mehemet Ali — His son 
Ibrahim, regent and successor — His short lease of power — Can 
his dream be now fulfilled ? — Reasons for the establishment of 
an Arab empire at the present moment 63 

CHAPTER V. 

ABBAS PACHA. 

Accession of Abbas Pacha — Personal description of him — His 
peculiar character and habits — A Turk of the Turks — Con- 
trasted with Said Pacha — His treatment of his people — The 
new " House of Bondage " under him — His closing tragedy — A 
dead man's drive — His son El-Hami — A fated family line . 80 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE BEIGN OF SAID PACHA. 

Said Pacha's accession — The new era introduced by him — Reversal 
of his predecessor's policy, and private conduct — Attempt to 
bind together the family faggot — His social habits — His great 
fetes — His princess, Ingee Khanum — His personal appearance 
and character — Resemblance physically and morally to " Bluff 
King Hal " — His military mania — Life under tents, and black 
knights in chain armour — His work in Egypt — A bright dawn 
and stormy sunset 91 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE FOREIGN COLONY IN EGYPT IN OLDEN TIME. 

The foreign colony in Egypt, under the earlier Viceroys — Classifi- 
cation of them — The merchant princes — The European army 
officers — Suleyman Pacha, or Colonel Seves, commander-in- 
chief — Some anecdotes of him — Other conforming and non-con- 
forming officials — Some curious specimens — Talking only 
Arabic ! — Peculiar privileges of foreign consuls-general and their 
proteges — The new mixed tribunals superseding consular 
authority — A few words about them, and the old doctrine of 
"Exterritoriality" 103 



CONTENTS. Vll 

CHAPTEE VIII. 
the khedive's egypt. 

PAGE 

Divisions of Modern Egypt : Lower Egypt, Middle Egypt, and 
Upper Egypt — The Soudan — Chief Exports — Eacts and figures 
— Population and Mortality — Difficulties and drawbacks native 
rulers must contend against — Smelfungus at Cairo — His sources 
of information — An appeal for justice on behalf of the new 
masters of the " House of Bondage " — Said Pacha's sad experi- 
ence with his model villages — The new foreign employes — The 
Government more generous than just in some respects . . 117 

CHAPTER IX. 

HELOUAN. 

An Aix les Bains in the desert — What and where is Helouan? 
— On the road to it — The grand boulevard to the citadel — 
Glimpses of interiors en route — The Mokattam Hills — their 
quarries — Through the desert, in view of the Pyramids — Ap- 
pearance of Helouan — Its sights and smells — The sulphur baths 
— The hotel — the view from its roof — An enthusiastic collector 
of antiques 134 

CHAPTER X. 

THE KHEDIVE ISMAIL AS A PUBLIC AND A PBIVATE MAN. 

His lucky star — The accident that made him Khedive — Achmet 
Pacha's closing scene — His character — A fatal fete and lucky 
illness — Halim Pacha's peril and escape — What might have 
been but for an open drawbridge — My early impressions of 
Prince Ismail — His love for "Naboth's vineyard" — The man 
and the monarch, briefly epitomized — Things he has done and 
things he has left undone — His building mania . , . 153 

CHAPTER XI. 

FOUR NATIVE MINISTERS AND HEKKEKYAN BEY. 

Some of the Khedive's native ministers — Nubar Pacha — His life 
and work — Personal traits — A family of diplomatists — Cherif 
Pacha — Description of him — Riaz Pacha — The strange story of 
Ismail Sadyk Pacha, the Mouffctich — An Egyptian Wolsey — A 
visit to his three palaces, and what we saw there — The moral of 
his rise and fall — Hekkekyan Bey — His theory of the Pyramids 17G 



viLL CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE LAND OF EGYPT AND ITS PRODUCTIONS. 

PAQB 

Egypt nothing, if not agricultural — Contrasted with India and 
China — Feeds her own population — " The life of Egypt " — Five 
million acres under cultivation — How cultivated — Cotton culture 
— Flax culture — Sugar culture — Extracts from recent report on 

p Khedive's sugar estates — Curious facts and figures relating to 
it — The grain crops — The date and fruit culture — Land taxa- 
tion — A painful picture of a year's work in the fields . . 200 

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE FELLAHEEN. 

Who is the fellah, and what is he ? — His earlier history as written 
on the tombs and temples, in the Scriptures, on stone and 
papyrus — A letter three thousand years old concerning him, in 
the British Museum — How Joseph treated him under Pharaoh 
— Origin of land tenure in Egypt — Under the Mamelukes and 
the house of Mehemet Ali, the new masters of his " House of 
Bondage " — His treatment under successive viceroys — His present 
condition 222 

CHAPTER XIV. 

SCIONS OF THE KOYAL HOUSE OF MEHEMET ALL 

The sons of Ismai'1, and other scions of the royal house, yet sur- 
viving — The sons of Abbas and of Said Pachas blasted in the 
bud — The sons of the Khedive — Mohammed Tewfik, heir pre- 
sumptive — His brothers Hussein and Hassan — Characteristics 
of each — The younger sons — How the Khedive is educating his 
children — Their uncle Halim Pacha, formerly heir apparent 
under the old rule — His character — Description of how he 
hunted the gazelle with hawk and hound — Revival in Egypt 
of a mediaeval sport — Halim's prospects 244 

CHAPTER XV. 

IRRIGATION AND THE BARRAGE. 

" The life of Egypt "• — The barrage — Proposition to pull down the 
Pyramids to construct it — A French engineer's perilous predica- 
ment — How he extricated himself — Said Pacha's new city on a 
medal! — Egyptian irrigation — How it is managed — Proposed 
substitute for the irrigation of the Delta — Something about the 
barrage . 262 



CONTENTS. ix 

CHAPTER XVI. 

EDUCATION IK EGYPT. 

PAGE 

What the Khedive has done in educating his people — The 



public schools — Their chief inspector, Dor Bey — Information 
derived from him — Slight sketch of the character and purposes 
of new schools, civil and military — The Polytechnic School at 
Ahbassieh — The Missionary schools — Miss Whately's school, 
and the German — Education for women — A queen worthy of 
her place — The coming race of Egyptian women. . . .271 

CHAPTER XVII. 

SKETCHES OF TWO FAMOUS ANGLO-AFRICAN EXPLORERS. 

Captain Richard Burton and Gordon Pacha at Cairo — Description 
of the men — Their latest work in Africa — The land of Midian 
— The Soudan — Burton's first appearance in Egypt — Some 
curious recollections — His last visit — What he was then and 
now — Burton's discovery — Gordon Pacha's personal character- 
istics — His proposed work in Central Africa . , „ . 282 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

MIXED JUDICIAL TRIBUNALS IN EGYPT. 

Efforts of Sublime Porte, for twenty-five years, to break down 
the doctrine of Exterritoriality in the Turkish dominions — ■ 
What Exterritoriality means — Mixed tribunals attempted to be 
introduced, under " Hatti Houmaion " of Sultan in 1856, and 
again tried by Egyptian Government in 1860 — Why prevented 
by Consuls-general on those occasions — Nubar Pasha's persistent 
efforts and final partial success — His plan as opposed to the 
plan recently adopted — My own action in the matter — The 
present tribunals entitled to a fair trial 297 

CHAPTER XIX. 

EGYPTIAN FINANCE AND RESOURCES. 

Absorbing interest felt therein — The doctors disagreeing — State of 
the patient in the eyes of a non-professional — A plain state- 
ment as to the amounts actually received from foreign loans by 
Khedive — What did he do with it ? — Testimony of the Times 
partly exculpatory of the Khedive — Curious and instructive 
letter from a native Egyptian official, translated from the 
French — His statements of resources, and suggestions for their 

increase — A few facts and figures 315 

A 2 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XX. 

EGYPTIAN NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS. 

PAGE 

The social life of Egypt — Native society unchanged — The ladies 
of the hareem, and their adoption of French millinery — The 
root of the evil — A royal wedding party in a Khedivial hareem 
described — The Khedive's entertainments — His breakfasts, 
dinners, and soirees dansantes at Ab-din 328 

CHAPTER XXI. 

THE SOUDAN. 

What and where is the v Soudan? — Its first annexation to Egypt 
— Conquest and occupation by Mehemet Ah — His visit there — 
Establishes Khartoum as its capital- — Abbas Pacha's treatment 
of it — Sai'd Pacha's visit — His proclamations — Attempts to 
connect it with Cairo, by rail and river — Reasons of failure — 
Mr. Fowler's plan, adopted by the Khedive — Some interesting 
extracts from his reports — Present position and prospects of 
Gordon Pacha 342 

CHAPTER XXII. 

IMPROVEMENTS AND PUBLIC WORKS IN EGYPT. 

Public improvements — Where some of the money has gone — 
General statement of public works and improvements during 
the present reign — Thirty or forty millions of pounds' worth 
accounted for — What and where are these improvements? — 
Harbour and lighthouse improvements — Gas and water works 
— Merchant marine — Thirteen hundred miles of railway com- 
pleted in last twelve years 362 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE ARMY OF EGYPT. 

An indeterminate quantity — Curious exemption of Cairenes and 
Alexandrians from conscription — How the conscription is made 
— What successive viceroys have done for the army — The army 
and the military chest — Excellent drill and organization of the 
forces — The American and other foreign officers — The Khedive's 
true, and Egypt's wisest policy 369 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE SHADOW OF THE STRANGER. 

Egypt's experience — Her three periods : Pagan, Christian, and 
Mussulman — International jealousies — Shall the Mediterranean 
bo a French or English "lake"? — Curious history of this 



CONTENTS. XI 

FAGB 

rivalry in regard to the overland transit — Cost of conciliating 
the rival nationalities to Egypt — Mariette Bey's characteriza- 
tion of the Egyptians — The irony of their destiny — The shadow 
of the stranger eclipsing native government — Laissez nous /aire! 381 

CHAPTER XXV. 

BY CAIRO TO EUROPE, Via ALEXANDRIA. 

By rail from Cairo to Alexandria — Disturbing a hareem — The last 
of backsheesh — The country en route — Two rival capitals — 
How an Alexandrian feels at Cairo, and how a Cairene regards 
him — Something about the Egyptian Brighton — Old and New 
Alexandria — The place and people — The different routes back 
to Europe — The Brindisi route — Picturesque old places on the 
Italian coast — The Moorish pirates — Through Italy — Bologna 
and its museum — La Belle France and adieu to Egypt . . 394 

Egypt's Future 409 



APPENDIX A. 

Concession and alleged Cost of Suez Canal to Egypt . . . 415 

APPENDIX B. 
The Suez Canal and the English Government .... 418 

APPENDIX C. 
The Mixed Tribunals 422 

APPENDIX D. 
Population of the Foreign Colony 426 

APPENDIX E. 
Firman charging Succession 428 

APPENDIX F. 
Egyptian Exploration of Central Africa 429 

APPENDIX G. 
Mr. Goschen's tabular Statement ....... 432 

APPENDIX H. 
Exports and Prices of Egyptian Crops . ... 433 



LIST OF ILLUSTBATIONS. 



Panorama of Suez Canal Frontispiece. 

View near Lake Timsah To face page 23 

Port of Suez . x . „ 42 

The Grain Market at Suez .... „ 103 

Land Traffic „ 200 

Water Traffic „ 222 

Square of Mudirieh at Khartoum ... ,, 286 



THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

CHAPTEE I. 

EASTWARD HO! FROM SOUTHAMPTON TO PORT SAID. 

Leave Southampton on P. and 0. steamer — The three chief routea 
to Egypt — "Biscay's sleepless bay" — Sudden step from winter to 
spring — The Rock and " Rock scorpions " — Remnants of Spanish and 
Moorish occupation — Fruit and flower markets in mid-winter — 
Malta and the Maltese — Marine theatricals — Port Said — First 
glimpses — The peculiarities of place and people — Off by canal by 
moonlight, for Ismai'lia. 

Leaving Southampton, under the cold and 
cloudy skies of a November morning in 1876, 
on the Peninsular and Oriental steamship 
Khedive, bound for Port Said, Suez, and India, 
we sailed for the Suez Canal — that eighth 
wonder of the world — with a view of examin- 
ing it and the young cities which have sprung 
up, like Jonah's gourd, upon its banks within 
the last ten years. 

Our steamer was one of the largest of those 
which pass through the canal, a magnificent 
specimen of naval construction in all respects, 



2 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

combining power, speed, space, safety, and com- 
fort in an eminent degree ; and our long run 
was more like a pleasure trip than a sea voyage, 
owing to the admirable arrangements of the 
company. Even the cuisine, which is not 
generally the strong feature on English boats, 
left nothing to desire ; and the bath arrange- 
ments were most ample and satisfactory. We 
carried one hundred and thirty first-class pas- 
sengers, and could have comfortably accommo- 
dated a score or two more. 

We chose the long route to Egypt for the 
benefit of the sea voyage of fourteen days' 
duration, in preference to the faster lines, via 
Brindisi or Marseilles, by which Egypt may be 
reached in half the time. Last year I dined one 
Thursday evening at London, and lunched at 
Alexandria on the ensuing Thursday, taking the 
P. and 0. Brindisi steamer. The route via Mar- 
seilles and Naples, in the French messageries 
steamers, takes about two days more from Lon- 
don, and you are six days at sea instead of three. 
The fare by all these lines is very nearly the 
same ; the cheapest route is by Liverpool screw 
steamers to Alexandria, and the Cunard, Moss, 
and Leyland lines, from the former place, are 
said to be well-appointed and comfortable : 
making the run in from twelve to fourteen days, 
at little more than half the price of the other 
lines already mentioned. 



"BISCAY'S SLEEPLESS BAY." 3 

From Southampton to " Biscay's sleepless 
bay," where the " winds were rough," as in 
Childe Harold's day, our voyage was monoto- 
nous ; but, on reaching that .well-known point, 
we were " rocked in the cradle of the deep " in 
a most satisfactory or unsatisfactory manner ; 
and the yawning gaps at the hitherto well-filled 
table testified that tribute was being as faith- 
fully paid to Neptune, as though the worship of 
the heathen gods still prevailed. From lips 
brimming over with song and jest but the day 
before, now proceeded only sounds of woe, not 
"most musical," though " melancholy;" and the 
possessor of " sea-legs " was happier than he of 
more symmetrical but more unsteady supporters. 
This game of pitch and toss continued until we 
ran under lee of the land approaching the 
Spanish coast, where Cape St. Vincent boldly 
looms up from afar : with its watch-tower 
perched on its highest cliff like an eagle's eyry, 
and barracks in which some Spanish troops are 
stationed for the protection of the customs 
duties. 

We had left Southampton on Thursday, and 
on the ensuing Tuesday the grim frowning Rock 
of Gibraltar (G-ebel el Tarih, or Bock of Tarik) 
looked down, upon us, as we rapidly steamed 
along the shores of Spain, and finally cast 
anchor beneath the shadow of the mountain 



4 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

at early morning, while sunshine and warmth, 
like those of early spring, bathed his bald old 
brow. For we felt we had gained another land 
and another climate than those we had parted 
from but four brief days before, and had made 
a sudden plunge into sunlight, and an earth 
covered with verdure and flowers. . The little 
boats that rowed off to meet us were filled with 
ripe luscious fruit and fresh flowers ; while the 
vendors of such souvenirs of Gibraltar as the 
place could boast of boarded the steamer im- 
mediately, with clamorous proffers of their 
wares in broken bits of several languages — 
English, French, Italian, and Spanish. 

Of course I shall not attempt to describe the 
famous " Eock," whose history and prominent 
features are so familiar to everybody. Yet even 
here the intruding Saxon has made his mark, 
until the grim old Moorish pirate, Tank — who 
has left it his name — would not recognize his 
eyry, were he permitted, like Hamlet's father, 
to " revisit the glimpses of the moon," and look 
upon it again. 

The fortifications constitute the chief feature, 
yet a drive through the town, that nestles down 
by the seaside under their protection, will 
richly repay the traveller by the curious con- 
trasts of character, costume, and race which will 
everywhere meet his eye. Like Malta, the 



THE "ROCK SCORPIONS.' 5 

place lias a most hybrid aspect, and so have the 
population — half Oriental, half European, with 
a strong infusion of the Spanish, which is 
sui generis and most characteristic. 

The English here, as at Malta, have only- 
encamped, not colonized. They have not fused 
and mixed in with the native population, as has 
been usually the case with Anglo-Saxon settle- 
ment in other lands. " The Bock scorpion " of 
Gibraltar, like the Maltese, does not hold social 
intercourse with the English residents, who 
constitute a society within themselves apart 
from the foreign element ; and as it was in the 
beginning, so it is to-day, and will be to-morrow, 
on both the rocks referred to ; held by force and 
by fear, not by affection or by choice, as appa- 
nages of England. 

Among the "Bock scorpions" (as the officers 
term the native population) the Spanish type is 
strongly marked in men and women, with an 
occasional infusion of Moorish blood, which, in 
fact, is perceptible throughout the whole of 
Spain. 

The men are lithe, swarthy, and sinewy, with 
black hair and flashing eyes ; the women, espe- 
cially the younger ones, decidedly pretty and 
gipsy-looking.. It was a fete day, sacred to some 
saint, when we landed, and many of the children 
were dressed in white for their first communion, 



6 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

and presented a most pleasing picture. The 
■women, still wearing the Spanish mantilla, filled 
the narrow pathways going to or returning from 
chapel, and added to the picturesqueness of the 
scene to eyes, which for days past had rested 
only on the tumhling waves of the dreary sea. 

The streets are steep and narrow, with tall 
stone houses of quaint architecture hemming 
them in — with glimpses of green gardens, in 
which gleam the golden oranges among the 
foliage, through open gateways. The public 
buildings are by no means remarkable, except for 
their mean appearance, contrasting thus most 
unfavourably with the other rock, Malta, where 
the grand palaces of the old knights have been 
appropriated for the purpose. At Gibraltar the 
British "Government has pushed simplicity to 
meanness, in the Governor's palace and other 
public buildings, not having had any old knights' 
palaces ready at hand. 

But the market-place struck us most, with its 
rich supplies of ripe fruit displayed in tempting 
profusion — orange, lemon, banana, blended with 
the fruits of less tropical regions ; while the 
baskets of roses and other fresh flowers per- 
suaded us that we must have been suddenly 
transported from November into June. 

At mid-day we sailed away froni this garden- 
spot in the waste of waters, whose grim fortifica- 



VAIN HOPES OF THE " ROCK SCORPIONS. 7 

tions contrast so strongly with its green gardens 
that cover the slopes below, as though War and 
Peace were disputing the ownership of the spot : 
and whose summer-like sun, even at this wintry 
season, gilded and warmed impartially the two. 
One cannot wonder that Spanish pride chafes 
at the English occupation of a spot so favoured, 
the key to two seas; and that even the "Bock 
scorpions," whose blood is Spanish, although 
profiting by the garrison and the expenditure it 
involves for their benefit, should equally resist 
denationalization, and look longingly forward (as 
I am told they do) to the day when the flag of 
Spain shall replace the banner of St. George 
on that lofty height. The British Government, 
however, shows no disposition to relinquish its 
grasp on this stronghold, which it still keeps 
strengthening, and it would be idle to dream of 
wresting it away by -force ; while seven years' 
provisions for the garrison, stowed safely away, 
forbid the possibility of starving out the place 
by investment. 

We had six hours' detention at Gibraltar, 
which we passed most pleasantly, repairing to 
the beautiful and shady gardens, which do so 
much credit to the public spirit of the people ; 
and, with a basket of fruit at our feet purchased 
for two or three shillings, sitting in open air, 
surveying the beauties of earth and sky. Gazing 



8 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

up to the frowning rock, at its summit we could 
discern the sentries pacing to and fro, reduced 
to the size of small children, on that airy height ; 
from which, in very windy weather, one would 
imagine they might he blown off bodily into the 
sea; and turning our eyes still further upward, 
could rejoice in a vision of that blue unclouded 
canopy of sky, which we had lost sight of for 
many weary weeks before in dear old dingy, 
grimy, cloud-covered London. 

For the rest of our trip we sailed over smooth 
seas, under sunny skies — the blue expanse of 
water unruffled by a blast, resembling more a 
placid lake than the ever-restless and unquiet 
sea ; reaching Malta on the fourth day, and 
passing six hours there, which, of course, we 
spent on shore. 

This half-way house between Europe and 
Africa has been so often and so well portrayed, 
that it would be an impertinence to reiterate a 
thrice-told tale in describing its frowning forts 
bristling with guns on the sea side, and the wide 
stretch of rocky plain, unrelieved by trees or 
verdure, which lies behind the town or towns, 
and the fortifications, which look strong 
enough to repel any foe, however numerous or 
however bold ; nature and art having combined 
to render Malta, or rather Valetta, as impreg- 
nable almost as Gibraltar. 



THE KEYS TO THE MEDITERRANEAN. 9 

V/ith these two keys to the Mediterranean, 
and the additional latch-key to Port Said, that 
sea may indeed now be regarded as an English 
lake, and John Bull's India house perfectly pro- 
tected against either burglars or sneak- thieves. 
AVhat the energy and foresight of Lieutenant 
Waghorn first provided in the " overland 
route " through Egypt, in shortening the road 
to India, the supplementary work of M. de 
Lesseps has made even easier and safer, under 
all contingencies. But without the possession 
of the keys already mentioned, with the addi- 
tional pass-key of the Bed Sea, the Great Bear 
might contend with the Lion for the future 
possession of Asia — a conflict now seemingly 
indefinitely postponed. 

Of the steep rocky streets, which you have to 
scale by actual steps cut in the stone (by some 
approaches apparently as high as the dome of 
St. Peter's), with tall stone houses shutting in 
the narrow streets, showing a strip of blue sky 
above and a glimpse of the sea at each end ; of 
the ever-increasing escort of ragged native beg- 
gars, which precedes and follows the stranger's 
steps, whining piteously for alms in all the 
languages of the Levant, which are those of 
Babel ; of the preponderance of the military 
element in the streets when you reach the 
Strada Keale of Yaletta, on which stand the 



10 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

Governor's palace, the Guard House, the Library, 
the clubs, and the hotels and cafes ; — are not 
all these familiar to the Indian traveller, the 
Egyptian yoyager, and even the more enter- 
prising of the tourists chaperoned by Messrs. 
Cook and Gaze ? 

But Malta presents more curious contrasts 
and more interesting studies, than those which 
first strike the stranger's eye, after landing and 
sauntering slowly through its unsavoury streets, 
where a congress of smells, as well as of lan- 
guages, seems ever in permanent session. 

The conflict of races, and their refusal, not 
only to amalgamate, but to meet and co-operate 
with each other — the evident stamp of subju- 
gation on the one, and of imperious domination 
on the other part — is even more perceptible 
at Malta than at Gibraltar; and the mutual 
repugnance of the two races more strongly 
evinced in speech, in act, and in print. You 
cannot pick up a local newspaper without get- 
ting proof of this; and the language employed 
by these local editors is not even loyal, 
much less flattering to their local governors, or 
the government they represent. From the 
Governor down to the lowest official, the 
language of denunciation and dispraise is freely 
used ; and assertions that would be regarded as 
libellous or actionable elsewhere freely indulged 



HALF-WAY HOUSE BETWEEN EUROPE AND AFRICA. 11 

in, and greedily devoured by the Maltese portion 
of the population. A winter spent at Malta 
enables me to speak understandingly of place 
and people ; and the result of my observation 
was, that if England depended solely or chiefly 
on the loyalty of her Maltese subjects to retain 
the island, her tenure would be insecure indeed ! 
The native Maltese are a curious race — 
Italian, with a strong infusion of Arab or 
Moorish blood in them : and with a most mis- 
cellaneous mixture of the blood of the different 
orders of foreign knights, who formerly lived and 
loved on the island, some of whose vows were 
notoriously regarded more " in the breach than 
the observance." Like their rocky home, the 
people are a kind of half-way house, between the 
West and the East; but in them the Eastern 
element predominates. They have even in- 
vented a language on the same principle — half 
" Lingua Franca," half Arabic — unwritten, yet 
currently spoken and understood among them- 
selves. They seem almost amphibious — the 
boys diving down into the sea and bringing up 
the pennies thrown into the water from the 
ship's side ; and the boatmen looking half fisher- 
man, half pirate, as they paddle across from 
Yaletta to Sleima for a twopenny fare ; the 
same boatmen, by the way, having this pecu- 
liarity, that they are so strongly saturated by the 



12 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

garlic they eat, that it penetrates not only their 
skin, but even their clothing, so that when the 
wind blows from them to the passenger in their 
boat, he scents not "the sweet south wind 
breathing o'er beds of violet," but the breath of 
Boreas blustering over the garlic fields, and 
redolent of that most potent perfume. Yet they 
are a good-tempered, hard-working, quick-witted 
race, even when uneducated; and the higher 
classes, who are chiefly descended from Sicilian 
nobles, and still bear their titles, possess the 
pride of race in a high degree ; and among them 
may be found ladies and gentlemen of the 
highest refinement and culture, fitted to shine 
in any society. But they are jealously exclusive, 
and reciprocate the disrespect shown them by 
the English officers, by not mingling with them 
and their families more than they can possibly 
avoid. 

At a ball given by one of these, descended from 
the old noblesse, out of several hundred guests, 
there were not more than a dozen English 
present or invited. 

On this occasion the national dance of Malta, 
which is performed in the old peasant costume, 
to an old national air, was danced by some very 
handsome young girls and their partners; and 
the music, which was wild and strange, seemed 
to fit in to every movement. It resembled more 



AMATEUR THEATRICALS. 13 

an English country dance than a Scotch reel, 
and was danced with great spirit. 

But to resume our voyage. 

Over these smooth seas we glided, the throh 
of the great heart of the engine pulsing audibly 
our progress, during the silent watches of the 
day and night, until on the fourth morning after 
leaving Malta, at sunrise we sighted the light- 
house of Port Said, on the low flat shore which 
there meets the Mediterranean. The night 
before we had an amateur theatrical perform- 
ance, in which two well-known professional 
artistes, Minnie Walton (an exceedingly pretty 
and jolly woman and charming actress) and 
young Sothern, who inherits much of his father's 
talent, kindly participated — quite a brilliant 
success ; collecting a considerable sum for the 
benefit of a charity fund, to which the proceeds 
were appropriated. 

We parted with the ship and passengers, after 
our two weeks' experience of both, with reluc- 
tance ; for it has seldom been my lot, in the 
course of wanderings more varied and wide, 
though not so much confined to one sea as 
those of the much bedevilled Ulysses, to have 
passed on board ship a more agreeable fort- 
night. But as we were not bound to China or 
India, and the captain declined the responsi- 
bility of dumping us down at Ismaiha as his 

B 



14 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

boat passed by, we saw no use in going through 
to Suez ; so we gathered our luggage together, 
descended the ship's side, and embarked our- 
selves and what the Romans properly termed 
impedimenta, on the small boat which was to take 
us to the shore, where an expectant crowd, in 
baggy breeches, and no clothing worth mention- 
ing, with very brown and exceedingly dirty faces 
and persons, seemed waiting to welcome — and, 
alas ! to plunder us. 

But a half-score of years ago, when the Suez 
Canal was as yet an uncertainty — in posse not in 
esse — where now stands a thriving and growing 
town were but a few scattered buildings for the 
use of the workmen and machinery of the Canal 
Company. But five years earlier, the site now 
occupie'd by piles of public and private buildings, 
surrounded by blooming gardens filled, even at 
this wintry season of the year, with green trees 
and tropical flowers in full bloom, was but a 
barren sandy waste, whose rugged coast offered 
no available harbour. But with the opening of 
the canal, " as though by stroke of an enchanter's 
wand," the desert was made to blossom as the 
rose, the groaning sea recoiled, a safe harbour was 
created, in which great ships might safely ride, 
and the twin towns of Port Said and Ismailia 
(the one at the Mediterranean mouth, the other 
at the central point of the new water-way) 



POET SAID — ITS BIRTH AND BAPTISM. 15 

sprang into sudden and lusty life, and have 
been growing into manhood, with a rapidity 
truly marvellous to contemplate in so old and 
slow a country as that in which they were 
incubated out of the desert sands. 

Although M. de Lesseps obtained the concession 
for the canal in the year 1854, shortly after the 
accession of Said Pacha, supported only by 
the Dutch and American consuls-generals in his 
application — even the French consul-general, 
like the English, then ridiculing and opposing 
the project in consequence of the opposition to 
it from England and Constantinople — it was 
fully five years before he got a fair start, and 
the birth of Port Said may really be dated from 
1859. It was a very rickety child long after, and 
it was only in 1869, with the opening of the 
canal, that its real growth began. Since that 
time its march has been onward. 

We landed at the wharf of Port Said among 
a motley crowd of native porters, all shriek- 
ing, yelling, and jostling each other in true 
Egyptian fashion, in desperate efforts to get 
possession of our luggage. Everybody got per- 
sistently in everybody else's way, and each 
separate piece of luggage created a harmless 
battle for its possession, similar to that so vividly 
described by Homer, as having raged over the 
body of Patroclus, it being fortunate in both 



16 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

cases, that the objects contended for were in- 
animate. We were protected in our persons by 
the inevitable Dragoman, who promptly took 
possession of us, and resolutely refused to 
abandon us, in spite of our protests, until we 
left the place at midnight ; standing sentry out- 
side of our door when we "sported our oak" 
against him, when inside the hotel, and squab- 
bling for more "backsheesh" when we last saw 
him gesticulating wildly on the canal shore by 
moonlight. Civilization immediately stared us 
in the face on landing, in the shape of a Custom- 
house ; and Orientalism in the backsheesh bribes 
we had to pay the employes, for not examining 
our various parcels and packages. 

This ceremony over, escorted by a rabble rout 
of porters and the friends of porters, each 
striving to touch some part of the luggage 
carried by the others, to establish a claim for 
payment, we proceeded to the Grand Hotel du 
Louvre — a French hotel of rather a barracky 
appearance, but whose table was really Parisian 
and comforting to stomachs kept on the plain 
British cuisine of the P. and 0. steamer for 
the two preceding weeks. Here we remained 
from 8 a.m. until midnight, and found the hotel. 
— with two exceptions — comfortable enough 
These exceptions were the villainous smells 
that permeated and pervaded it throughout from 



MEN AND MUSQITOES AT POET SAID. 17 

imperfect drainage, and the hungry hosts of 
musquitoes which banqueted upon us without 
a moment's cessation. These winged leeches 
were small, black, and voiceless ; giving no 
" dreadful note of preparation," as is usual with 
their bolder brethren elsewhere, but settling 
down in silence on face or hands, and giving the 
first indication of their visit by the presentation 
of their "little bills," until we were driven out 
into the open air to escape them. We also 
found human musquitoes, in the proprietors of 
the hotel, who proved almost as bad bloodsuckers 
as the winged ones, on presenting their " little 
bills " also at parting. Bufc keeping an hotel at 
Port Said must really be no joke, and the few 
outsiders who can be caught in transit ought 
not to grumble at high charges under such ex- 
ceptional circumstances ; and therefore let us 
dismiss both men and musquitoes with a bene- 
diction, and the expression of a hope that we 
may never be subjected to the tender mercies of 
either again, during our Eastward pilgrimage. 

As there are but two daily departures, via the 
canal, for Isma'ilia, forty miles distant, by small 
steamers — one early in the morning, the other 
at midnight — and we had missed the first, we 
spent the dajr in strolling over the town, which is 
decidedly French in aspect, and well and com- 
' pactly built. The foreign population also seems 



18 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

chiefly French — people in some way connected 
with the Isthmus works ; and the language also 
in the shops was French, instead of Italian, as 
is generally the case at Alexandria or Cairo. 

Port Said is rather a pretty, though not over 
clean place, with a large public garden in the 
centre of the town, filled with rare Eastern 
trees, shrubs, and flowers, all looking as fresh 
and blooming as though the season were July, 
not November. The heat of the sun also was 
so oppressive that we had to resort to umbrellas 
for protection. The town is remarkable as the 
growth of so short a time, not only in its solid 
blocks of buildings and blooming gardens, but 
also for the magnitude ajid beauty of many of 
the private residences, with their large verandahs 
extending all around them, as in Havana — the 
ceaseless clouds of tobacco smoke rising from 
the mouths of the residents, completing the 
resemblance to the " ever-faithful island." 

Many of these planter-like residences are 
occupied by the agents of the numerous steam- 
ship lines, of all nationalities, trading with India 
and China through the canal ; one of the effects 
of that great artery's being opened having been 
the destruction of the previous British monopoly 
of the trade of the East. Now an eager and 
active competition is carried on by other nation- , 
alities and by private companies, to the great 



MIDNIGHT VOYAGE TO I3MAILIA. 19 

diminution of value of the P. and 0. stock, 
■which used to command very high premiums 
when that pioneer line enjoyed the monopoly of 
the overland transit through Egypt. 

Viewing these snug residences, and reflecting 
that, for at least a portion of the year, the lives 
of the foreign residents must pass in almost as 
unbroken apathy and repose as those of Tenny- 
son's "lotos-eaters," it occurred to us that the 
noiseless though persistent musquito of Port 
Said may have been provided by Providence, to 
prevent the blood from stagnating in so torpid a 
place ; acting as a substitute for the immemorial 
"barber-leech" of Italy and Spain. We were 
surprised to find such numerous and excellent 
shops at Port Said, and the extreme youth of 
the place insured the freshness of the supplies. 
The streets are broad and well laid out ; and 
although walking on the pavements, or the ledge 
representing them, is not unaccompanied by 
the drawbacks of sleeping dogs and much un- 
removed rubbish, common to all Eastern towns, 
yet, on the whole, a lady wearing short skirts 
can contrive to pass over them in comparative 
safety. 

At midnight we left the hotel for the small 
Egyptian mail steamer, which was to take us 
through the canal to Ismailia. We were not 
kept waiting much over an hour bej^ond the 



20 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

appointed time at the office, and again were 
confronted with civilization, in the shape of 
weighing luggage, and heavy charges for alleged 
extra weight in addition to our regular fare, 
almost doubling the tariff price. Orientalism 
also took leave of us in a chorus of lamentations, 
sounding strangely like curses, from Dragoman 
and porters, already heavily overpaid for real or 
imaginary services forced upon us : as the small 
steamer splashed away towards the canal, under 
a moonlight almost as bright as daylight. 

The steamer looked like a toy boat, reminding 
us, both from its size, and its wheel at the stern 
instead of the sides of the vessel, of the small 
boats that ply up and down the bayous in Loui- 
siana. A very diminutive cabin forward, with 
no berths, but simply divans, sufficient to accom- 
modate six persons stretched out at full length, 
constituted the first-class accommodation. For- 
tunately there were in all but four first-class 
passengers, so we were comfortable enough. As 
we were favoured by bright moonlight — so bright 
that one could easily read by it — I spent the 
larger portion of my time on the small outside 
deck, looking out upon the strange scene, and 
the narrow canal through which we were almost 
noiselessly paddling at the rate of about eight 
miles per hour. The great sea walls outside, 
built out into the sea several miles, to resist the 



PASSAGE THROUGH THE SUEZ CANAL. 21 

encroachments of the Mediterranean, as well as 
the opening or mouth of the canal itself, are 
well worth seeing and examining more closely 
than our time allowed us ; for they are proofs of 
the wonderful ingenuity and skill of engineering 
science in resisting the wars of winds and waves 
against its artificial bulwarks. 

But the greater part of the transit to Isma'ilia 
from Port Said, when the first novelty is over, 
is monotonous in the extreme — almost a run 
through a large ditch, which, however, is far 
wider than one would have imagined from 
merely reading a description of it ; since it looks 
wide enough to permit several steamers of large 
size to pass at the same time. Part of the canal 
is simply a trench cut through the desert, which 
is gritty, not sandy, and the deepening of the 
channel through salt lakes already existing, but 
too shallow for navigation. The rest consists of 
heavy cuttings through hills, whose rugged out- 
lines on either side break the dead level and 
uniform monotony of the banks. Approaching 
and leaving Kantara — a station where a short 
stoppage is made — the latter is the case. 

Yet the scene is unique and utterly unlike any 
other; the southern bayous, whose water-way 
resembles the canal, being fringed with great 
trees draped in moss, waving from them like 
banners in some old cathedral, and lined besides 

15 2 



22 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

by dense underbrush. Here the dead silence 
and solitude, the grey wastes around unrelieved 
by tree, bush, or shrub, looking still more ghostly 
under moonlight, with only the plashing of the 
little steamer to recall the sounds of life, made 
it a solemn and weird spectacle, though a 
monotonous one, during the six hours of our 
transit. 



CHAPTEE II. 

ISMA'lLIA— THE DESERT— CAIRO. 

Reach Ismai'lia at sunrise — First view — The Custom-house nuisance 
again — The faith in things unseen — The Hotel Paris — A truly 
Parisian cuisine — Stroll over the town — Its public and private 
gardens — Peculiar charms of this oasis in the desert — The railway- 
route, via Zagazig, to Cairo — Along the Fresh-Water Canal — 
Should the Chinese coolie be imported? — The Suez Canal and 
Euphrates Railway route — Some facts and figures about the Suez 
Canal — Mention of one of its founders. 

We reached Isma'ilia about sunrise, and passing 
ashore with our luggage, found ourselves under 
a leafy bower of shade trees, forming an avenue 
of acacias and wild figs which, although yet 
youthful, had attained already sufficient pro- 
portions to do honour to the Champs Elysees ; 
although they, as well as the little city which 
we saw at the end of the leafy vista, half a mile 
distant, occupied the space which was sandy 
desert a few years before. For nature here is 
indeed a bounteous mother, wherever water is 
brought to the soil; no other fertilizer seeming 
to be needed in this country of contradictions. 



24 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

Here, again, we were most unexpectedly- 
arrested by the Custom-house nuisance, to 
which we had already been subjected at Port 
Said but twenty-four hours before. Why or 
wherefore the superior powers alone can tell; 
but the wayfaring man, though not a fool, 
may not. Argument and expostulation were in 
vain, and more francs had to be offered up on 
the shrine of Backsheesh the Insatiable, whose 
worship has succeeded that of Isis and Osiris in 
the land of the Pharaohs, before we were per- 
mitted to pass the imaginary barrier, where 
there is a gate barring the road, and an exces- 
sively dirty and stolid Egyptian acting as toll- 
gatherer. On we marched, with unopened 
trunks borne on the shoulders of several Arabs, 
towards Isma'ilia and breakfast ; and wearied 
with our night journey, hailed the sight of the 
Hotel Paris, which had been highly recom- 
mended to us, and richly merited the recommen- 
dation. 

Isma'ilia (so named in compliment to the 
Khedive) is a far prettier, though much smaller, 
town than Port Said, which the completion and 
successful working of the Fresh- Water Canal, 
that connects it directly with Cairo, and 
promises to act as a great feeder of produce to 
the Suez Canal by diverting the transportation 
thither, bids fair to expand into much larger 



A GARDEN-CITY. 25 

proportions, and make the centre of a brisk 
trade in native produce. ' Even now it is an 
attractive and pretty place — a wonderfully pre- 
cocious child of eight years of age — with its 
public garden in the centre of the city, blooming 
even in mid- winter with rare exotics and ever- 
greens, and with a large fountain of fresh water 
furnishing the inhabitants with a full supply 
of that luxury. Its Khedivial palace, and the 
pretty chalets of M. de Lesseps and others, em- 
bowered in gardens filled with flowers and fruits, 
and its snug little shops filled with Parisian 
knicknacks, give it the air of one of the small 
towns in the environs of Paris bodily trans- 
ported into the desert — an impression which the 
prevalence of the French tongue, even on Arab 
lips, tends also to enhance. Here the " Father 
of the Isthmus," as he loves to be called — 
M. de Lesseps, that well known " Veillarcl qui 
ne se veillit pas " (as his French friends say) — 
holds his court for three months every year, and 
dispenses hospitality on the most lavish scale ; 
and at the patriarchal age of seventy-three, 
exceeding the Scriptural term, with his young 
wife and houseful of young children, seems to 
bloom like a century plant. 

Ismailia, as already stated, enjoys the excep- 
tional privilege of an excellent hotel, the Hotel 
Paris, kept by an old French resident, who 



26 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

boasts the same name as the gay capital of 
France, and who proves himself- entitled to that 
highest eulogium of " knowing how to keep an 
hotel." So well is this appreciated in Egypt, 
that many of the visitors to, and residents at, 
Cairo are in the habit of running up to Ismailia 
to enjoy the cuisine and the climate, both of 
which, except at midsummer, are exceptionally 
good. Our experience of the place was limited 
but to a few hours, but a better breakfast, on 
short notice, could not have been served at 
Paris — delicious fish fresh from the lake being 
one of the most attractive features, served up 
with a sauce justifying the French gourmet's 
eulogy: " Monsieur, with this sauce one might 
eat his father! " 

Ismailia is famous for its fish, with which the 
Cairene market is supplied; and its fruits and 
flowers also are almost unrivalled. 

The town itself is European in appearance, 
reminding one of Auteuil or Passy, with a dash 
of the East thrown in by the semi-tropical 
vegetation. The shops are chiefly kept by 
French men or women, who constitute the bulk 
of the population, although of course the 
evidences of Egyptian residence are not wanting. 
The climate in winter is said to be very equable 
and agreeable, though I should suppose that 
the vicinity of large bodies of water would 



DESCRIPTION OF ZAGAZIG. 27 

render it somewhat damp. This, however, the 
residents will not admit, and my own experience 
was too limited to contradict their positive and 
patriotic vindication of their climate. Certain 
it is that Isma'ilia is a very pretty place, and for 
those who love peace and quiet, and can dis- 
pense with society, might prove an attractive 
residence during the winter months; although 
few Oriental features present themselves there 
beyond the gardens and the climate. Its proxi- 
mity to Cairo also tends to render it accessible 
to civilization and society. 

We spent only a few hours at Isma'ilia, and 
then took the railway, via Zagazig, to Cairo — a 
most dusty and fatiguing journey of about seven 
hours, rendered apparently longer by the fre- 
quent and almost interminable stoppages at the 
small railway stations, or rather sheds, every 
half-hour. Zagazig, at which we stopped en 
route, is really a pretty place, and apparently a 
prosperous one, with its well-built houses, and 
storehouses for produce, and its mosques and 
minarets of much pretension, to meet the 
spiritual wants of its population, which is chiefly 
Egyptian. Out of 40,000 inhabitants of which it 
boasts, not more than 300 can even put in a claim 
to foreign European origin. It is the chief city 
of the province of Charkye, which numbers 
nearly half a million of inhabitants. Among 



28 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

other large cities in the Delta are — Daman- 
hour, with 25,000 inhabitants ; Mansourah, with 
16,000 ; Tanta (where the great fairs are held), 
with 60,000 ; Eosetta at the Nile-mouth 15,000, 
and Damietta 29,000 ; so that there are cities to 
be seen outside of Cairo and Alexandria, though 
seldom visited by tourists. 

For more than half the way after leaving Is- 
ma'ilia, the transit is through the desert — the most 
bare, bleak, and dreary scene the eye of man can 
rest upon; the very "abomination of desolation" 
spoken of in Scripture ; unrelieved for miles by 
the slightest trace of man's presence or occupa- 
tion, deserted even by birds and beasts, — an arid, 
shrubless waste of ever-shifting sand. Yet ex- 
perience has proved that even this desert waste 
can be" made " to blossom as the rose," simply 
by the use of water, without other fertilizers ; 
and one of the great uses of the Fresh- Water 
Canal will arise from the irrigation it will supply, 
and the belt of fertility it will create, along the 
whole line of its course. The blooming gardens 
of Port Said and Isma'ilia, so lately redeemed 
from the desert by similar agency, would seem 
to afford ample confirmation to this claim ; espe- 
cially since the canal has passed into the hands 
of the Suez Canal Company, at least for a time, 
that corporation having obtained the control of 
it from the Khedive. The opening of this new 



THE FRESH-WATER CANAL. 29 

water-way has already been celebrated with 
much pomp at Isma'ilia in- April, 1877 ; and the 
Khedive has promised formally to inaugurate it 
in the autumn. 

Statements have been made, in English and 
foreign journals, that the Fresh- Water Canal 
from Isma'ilia had been purchased from the 
Egyptian Government by the Suez Canal Com- 
pany ; but this is a mistake. Like most of the 
great public works of Egypt at this moment, it 
has only been hypothecated to creditors, as are 
the railways and the harbours and docks. 

A debt of 2,500,000 francs being due to M. 
Paponot, the contractor, and to the Suez Canal 
Company, for advances made to the Khedive, it 
has been agreed that a commissioner shall be 
appointed by the Canal Company to take over 
a portion of the tolls collected from, the New 
Fresh- Water Canal, until the liquidation of this 
debt; though the Suez Company will have no 
power to control the management, but merely to 
collect a portion of the money accruing there- 
from, as it is paid into the treasury. 

The receipts of the new canal are estimated 
at about 1,000,000 francs per annum, which 
would clear off the company's loan in three 
years and a half. But, of course, this calcu- 
lation is based on the popularity of the new 
canal as a means of transit for the produce of 



30 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

the interior, hitherto conveyed by other routes. 
As to its profits from irrigation, they probably 
will not be immediate nor great, for reasons 
already stated ; and, in reality, with the diminish- 
ing force of labourers, which the war will neces- 
sarily cause, both by the drafts from Con- 
stantinople, and the necessity of keeping up an 
army in Egypt to guard the canal and meet 
other possible contingencies, some time must 
elapse before more land will be needed for culti- 
vation in Egypt. 

What is needed to effect the redemption of 
thousands of acres more of the waste lands of 
Egypt, in addition to canals for irrigation, is 
labour, and the judicious employment of it ; 
instead of the slovenly and wasteful system that 
now prevails. 

Egypt is sparsely populated, even for its area 
of already cultivable land; and of its five and 
a half millions of inhabitants, probably one- 
third of its adult male population reside in 
the larger cities and towns, and are not 
agricultural labourers or cultivators. Cairo 
swallows up half a million, Alexandria a quar- 
ter of a million, living by petty trades or indus- 
trial pursuits other than agricultural. The 
large towns of the Delta, which have increased 
enormously in size and population under the 
present reign, swallow up manv thousands 



EGYPT'S GKEATEST WANT. 31 

more. A rigorous system of conscription also 
drafts largely from the rural population its 
young and able-bodied portion, the very bone 
and sinew of the country, to perish by disease or 
battle in Turkey or Abyssinia, or become un- 
productive consumers at home. The standing 
strength of the Egyptian army has been esti- 
mated at from 60,000 to 70,000 men, although 
recently the Khedive has reduced the cadres 
largely, and wisely sent back his warriors into 
that field where pruning-hooks take the place of 
swords. The new acquisitions in Soudan and 
Central Africa have called for, and must still de- 
mand, large expeditionary corps, many — perhaps 
most — of whom are destined never to return; 
falling victims either to the pestilential climate 
(almost as fatal to the Egyptian as to the 
European), or to the ferocity of the savage 
warriors of interior Africa, a race seemingly as 
untamable as the Comanche Indians. How to 
supply this pressing want, underlying the pro- 
gress and prosperity of Egypt, is one of the 
many problems now vexing the active and 
restless brain of the Khedive, who has inherited 
much of the energy, as well as the throne of 
his grandfather, Mehemet Ali — the Napoleon of 
the East — founder of a line which bids fair to 
outlive that of the Sultan's. 

By his equatorial annexations (now welded 



32 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

together under the rule of the adventurous 
and indefatigable Gordon Pacha (to whom ab- 
solute governorship for life has recently been 
given), the Khedive has thus far gained a large 
increase of territory and of population nomi- 
nally, but no material advantage, nor addition 
to his labouring population. For it is more 
than doubtful, if the barbarians of Central Africa 
even were colonized in Egypt, that they could 
be made to work in the fields as regular labourers. 
Their native indolence, as well as their savage 
training, would render the result of such an 
experiment (even if attempted on a large scale) 
more than problematical. The tiger cannot be 
made to plough in the same furrow as the ox ; 
and the savage Central African nomad, com- 
pared with the peaceful, drudging Egyptian 
fellah — a serf and born thrall for centuries — is as 
the tiger to the ox. In this strait the attention 
of the Khedive has been directed, by thoughtful 
Europeans in Egypt, towards the teeming and 
industrious millions of China ; and a scheme for 
the introduction of coolies into Egypt has been 
proposed to and considered by the Khedive 
himself, who has inclined a serious ear to the 
proposition, but has interposed doubts as to the 
feasibility or propriety of the scheme proposed^ 
suggesting a plan of his own for the purpose. 
He has responded that the idea was not a bad 



INTRODUCTION OP "THE HEATHEN CHINEE." 33 

one, but the experiment of introducing the 
coolies at his own risk and expense might prove 
a costly one to him, should it result in failure ; 
and that it might prove highly difficult to enforce 
contracts with them, after they were in the 
country. " But," he added, "if they will come 
of their own accord, and at their own expense, 
entailing no charge, present or prospective, upon 
my government, they shall he warmly welcomed ; 
be given employment, or, should they prefer it, 
be allowed to occupy and reclaim vacant or wild 
lands, which shall be free from taxation for a 
term of years." 

The initiatory steps have thus been taken, the 
seeds have been sown, and it is more than pro- 
bable that a short time only will elapse before 
the " heathen Chinee " will show his yellow face 
in Egypt, and add one more to the many types 
of race already there. For there are many 
reasons why the Chinaman should feel himself 
more at home in Egypt than in California, or in 
other Western lands into which his cupidity has 
led him. In the first place, soil, climate, and 
productions, as well as modes of cultivation in 
Egypt, assimilate more closely to those of the 
land of his birth, than those in the Western 
Hemisphere. In the second place, the prejudice 
of colour, caste, and race, as well as of religion, 
will not weigh so heavily upon him among 



34 THE KHEDIVE S EGYPT 

the Moslems, as among the " pale-faces " and 
Christians, whose "charity" does not coyer his 
"multitude of sins" (real or supposed), in the 
West. Put him down among the rice fields of 
Eosetta or Damietta, or on the sugar plantations 
at Minieh, among the copper-coloured labourers 
there assembled, and but for the difference of 
language and dress he might fancy himself at 
home. There is really no such sharp dividing 
line of character, custom and race between the 
Coolie and the Fellah — no such insuperable bar- 
riers as those existing between the former and 
tbe European ; and in the former case amalga- 
mation, as well as association, would not seem 
impossible, or even improbable. In short, view- 
ing the matter in every aspect, s the proposal to 
introdi1.ce the Coolie into Egypt, to fill the labour 
void, seems to offer the speediest as well as most 
satisfactory solution of the problem. 

This train of reflection was irresistibly induced 
by what the new canal is expected to accomplish. 
Eor what use will land be, however capable of 
culture, without the hands to utilize it ? And 
should the Mongol ants swarm into Egypt for this 
purpose, how great a revolution in American as 
well as Egyptian interests niay they not effect ? 

Since the Suez Canal ceased to be an en- 
gineering question, by its successful completion 
and working, it has passed into the other phase 



WILL THE SUEZ CANAL PAY? 35 

of a financial question. " Can it be made to 
pay ? " is now the problem which thus far, owing 
to the enormous subsidies extorted from succes- 
sive viceroys (now for ever ended), has never 
been fairly tested until recently. 

We are very much in the dark as to many 
points of the administration, and as to the actual 
expenses of the concern; it having been very 
much of a close corporation, under French con- 
trol, until intermeddling "perfide Albion" insisted 
on putting her finger into the pie, and assuming 
a share in the direction of the enterprise, to 
which she contributes about nine-tenths of the 
support. My own brief examination of the canal 
showed me how incessant must be the wash 
upon the sides, and the filling up of the narrow 
channel, through ordinary wear and tear. But 
there are other and extraordinary influences 
also at work on the canal, owing to its peculiar 
situation and surroundings, as the following 
statement clipped from the London papers of 
May 1st will conclusively show: — " The Penin- 
sular and Oriental Company's steamship Poonah, 
with the India and China mails, which arrived 
at Southampton yesterday, experienced, while 
in the Suez Canal, a severe sand-storm, which 
commenced at sunrise, and continued, more or 
less furious, until five in the afternoon. During 
the storm she laid right across the canal power- 



36 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

less. Tons of sand were thrown on the deck/ 
and the masts and gear were covered with, a 
thick coating." 

The effects of a series of such storms on the 
canal mnst he obvious to every one, the peculiar 
position and character of that work being taken 
into consideration. 

From a general statement of the affairs of the 
canal, made to the shareholders at their general 
meeting at Paris, towards the close of the year 
1876, by M. Charles de Lesseps, son of "the 
founder," and vice-president of the company, we 
derive some information as to its actual working. 
He assumes only to give " an interesting forecast 
of the probable financial results of the year's 
working" (to quote the language of the journal 
from which this statement is extracted), " as 
follows " : — 

" In 1875, he said a net profit of 1,061,000 
francs (£42,440) had been earned, which was 
sufficient for the payment of a dividend of 
If. 88c. per share. It is expected, however, 
that the free revenue of 1876 will amount to 
1,500,000 or 1,600,000 francs (£60,000 to 
£64,000), and this increase of about 50 per cent, 
in the profits will admit of the payment of a 
dividend of about 2f. 80c. per share, which, 
added to the 25 francs of interest, gives a 
revenue of about 28 francs per share. But the 



CONDITION AND PROSPECTS OF THE COMPANY. 37 

company may be said to have made even greater 
progress than is shown by these figures. The 
increase in the traffic receipts for 1876, as com- 
pared with those for the previous year, amounted 
to 1,100,000 francs (£44,000), while the working 
expenses had actually diminished. On the 
working of the canal, therefore, there had been 
an increased profit not of 50, but of fully 100 
per cent. ; but, owing to the commercial de- 
pression in Egypt, the company had not been 
able to dispose of its lands so readily as in 
former years, nor to invest its money on such 
advantageous terms. M. C. de Lesseps, how- 
ever, hopes that as the commercial situation 
improves these two last sources of income will 
become more prolific, and that, if peace be 
secured, an immediate and important increase of 
traffic may be expected. That increase, too, he 
believes, will not necessitate any augmentation 
in the working charges." 

This statement, it must be borne in mind, 
does not come from M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, 
the head of the company, but from his son, 
lately promoted to the post of vice-president, 
and therefore cannot; be regarded as a formal 
official expose of the actual condition and pros- 
pects of the company, which has recently been 
strengthened, or weakened, by £4,000,000 of 
British gold, and the appointment of two English 

C 



38 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

members of the Board. To practical people, this 
" interesting forecast " will not be as satisfactory 
as it seems to have proved to the able editor 
who reports it ; the facts and figures not being 
so roseate of hue, as the hopes and beliefs of 
Lesseps the younger, based partly on political 
and partly on speculative assumptions, which 
may, or may not, prove fallacious. The jarrings 
and jealousies which have recently manifested 
themselves between the old French and new 
English stockholders have not tended to con- 
stitute " a happy family" out of the directory; 
nor has Mr. Disraeli's grand coup increased its 
harmony. The Lion, not the Eagle, now guards 
the entrance to, and protects the passage 
through the canal, which, but for Napoleon III. 
(who wrung the milHons of indemnity out of the 
recalcitrating viceroy), would never have been 
completed. Never was the irony of fate more 
curiously exhibited than in the history of this 
enterprise which, planned and perfected by 
Erench pertinacity and French francs, eked out 
by Egyptian indemnities and contributions, has 
finally resulted in the almost exclusive use and 
benefit of England, so long its contemptuous 
critic and opponent. 

That which one of the greatest English 
ministers, with the greatest English engineer at 
his back, contemptuously pooh-poohed in Par- 



THE COST OF THE CANAL. 39 

liament, with all England applauding him, an 
equally audacious successor in the premiership, 
encouraged by equally loud popular acclamation, 
has recently disbursed millions upon ; and a 
young prince of the blood royal has been sent in 
his ship, to keep watch and ward over its Medi- 
terranean mouth, against all comers. For the 
canal now is more English than French; and 
probably the most bitter reflection that passes 
through the mind of the representative French- 
man who, in conjunction with two other French- 
men (the engineers Linant and Mougel Beys, 
who supplied the engineering skill in which the 
ancient diplomat was deficient), planned and 
perfected the canal, must be the knowledge of 
this fact ; as well as the painful conviction that 
although, during the term of his natural life, he 
will still be the figure-head of the company, 
his destined successor must inevitably be an 
Englishman — from the preponderating interest of 
that nationality in the work, whether in peace or 
in war. 

The cost of the canal from first to last 
seems to have amounted to ,£19,000,000, about 
£6,000,000 of which had to be paid to the 
company for concessions made by the Khedive, 
which he had to withdraw and pay for in this 
very liberal manner. These concessions con- 
sisted of large bodies of desert lands ; but the 



40 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

company still retains large tracts around its 
chief centres of traffic, Port Said and Isma'ilia. 
It has been proved that this landed property 
may be made cultivable by the use of water, and 
must therefore materially advance in value.* 

In one respect all the visions of its projector 
have not been fulfilled. He was so sanguine of 
the substitution of steamers for sailing vessels in 
the trade with the East, that he laughingly said 
one day that he believed, after a short time, a 
sailing ship would become as great a rarity for 
general traffic by water as a stage-coach for 
land travel ; nor has his other idea that sailing 
vessels would be towed through the canal been 
more correct. Steam has merely superseded 
sails in the Bed Sea traffic, and there are still 
sailing vessels. 

Hereafter, when the gratitude or the means of 
the company shall prompt them to raise some 
memorial to the founders of the canal, alongside 
of that which will commemorate the name and 
fame of Ferdinand de Lesseps — already so world- 
wide in this connection — should be placed 
another of equal magnitude, to commemorate the 
services of S. S. Euyssennaers, consul-general of 
Holland, and first vice-president of the company, 
whose shrinking modesty has hitherto veiled 
from the public eye his claims to an almost 

* See Appendix A for other particulars as to cost of canal. 



A TEIBUTE TO ONE OF THE FOUNDERS. 41 

equal paternity of the great enterprise, which 
without him might, and probably would, never 
have proved a success. 

I speak of what I know, and of what many 
others in Egypt also know, when I assert that 
from the earliest inception of this enterprise, 
before and after the concession was obtained (in 
which he took a leading part), as well as in his 
constant mediation and management in all its 
stages, wherein his tact, temper, and influence 
with two successive viceroys had to be often and 
strongly exerted to save the scheme from utter 
ruin, the final success of the enterprise is as 
much due to him, as to the indomitable pluck 
and energy of his better known and more for- 
tunate co-labourer, to whom the public has 
accorded all the glory. 

I mention this fact with no wish to tear 
one leaf from the well-earned chaplet of M. de 
Lesseps, one of whose earliest friends and sup- 
porters (when his friends were few) I claim to 
have been, in act as well as profession. But 
surely there is glory enough in so great a success 
to bear division ? and in what I have alleged the 
testimony of many old Egyptians will bear me 
out — as well as the records of the company 
itself. So sensible was the Khedive himself of 
this obligation, that in the photograph he caused 
to be prepared for presentation to the crowned 



42 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

heads of Europe, in commemoration of the inau- 
guration of the canal, unsolicited by any one, he 
assigned one of the most conspicuous places, 
next himself in that picture, to the photographic 
likeness of M. Euyssennaers, in recognition of 
his great services in regard to the work; and 
Christendom and the company surely cannot 
afford to be less grateful than the Khedive, when 
the hour comes for their public recognition also. 

Suez has also profited by the canal, although 
not so much as her younger sisters on the 
Isthmus. Before the Suez Canal was a success, 
Suez had a certain impulse given to it by the 
transit, and its connection with the P. and 0. 
line of steamers, then and for a long time the 
monopolists for the Indian voyage ; after the 
enterprise and energy of Waghorn had demon- 
strated the superiority of the overland transit to 
the tedious passage round the Cape. 

In those early days Suez was a crumbling old 
Arab town, with a sparse population of natives, 
and not a dozen European residents ; possessing, 
it is true, a large rambling hotel, built by the 
P. and 0. Company, which gave the returning 
Indian traveller a foretaste of European enter- 
tainment again. But there was a general air of 
desolation and decay about the place, which was 
rather disheartening. 

With the new influx however, through the 




I fit 



SUEZ AND THE EUPHKATES VALLEY KAILKOAD. 43 

canal, a revival has taken place, although it is sad 
to record the fact that two-thirds of the resident 
foreigners are men; the gentler sex apparently 
shunning Suez, or being dispensed with by the 
ungallant males who have congregated there, 
and made it a kind of Eastern bachelors' hall. 
The population now comprises about 2500 
foreigners, and about 11,000 Arabs, in all 13,500; 
the floating population is impossible to esti- 
mate. The vicinity to the Eed Sea, and the 
connection of several sites in the vicinity with 
Scriptural story — notably the supposed point 
where Pharaoh and his host attempted, and the 
Israelites successfully accomplished, the passage 
of the Eed Sea, the well of Moses (Ain el 
Moussa), and other traditional places — give Suez 
the only interest it can boast of to the tourist. 

The Euphrates Valley Eailway road to India, 
which once shared public interest with the Suez 
Canal, for which it was proposed as a sub- 
stitute, seems to have lost the favour it once 
enjoyed. Eive years since, the British House of 
Commons appointed an able committee to inves- 
tigate the subject, and obtain the opinions of the 
most eminent public men, whose experience had 
qualified them to form a correct judgment as to 
the necessity and practicability of that route. 
Among these were Lord Sandhurst and Lord 
Strathnairn, both formerly commanders-in-chief 



44 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

in India, and Sir Henry Hawlinson, than whom 
there could be no better authority. The com- 
mittee also examined many other distinguished 
persons, whose experience or researches gave 
weight to their utterances. 

The result of this inquiry was, that the com- 
mittee came to the conclusion that the first cost 
of construction would be £10,000,000. Politi- 
cally and strategically, there was an agreement of 
opinion that such an alternative line, in case 
of war, would be useful. The military witnesses 
differed widely in opinion as to the value of such 
a line as a means of sending troops to India. 
Lord Sandhurst expressed his preference for sea 
transportation. Several others doubted the ex- 
pediency of sending troops over a line passing 
over 900 miles, from Scanderoon to the Persian 
Gulf, through a foreign country, liable to be 
disturbed by European complications and local 
disturbances. " The Indian Government, in a 
despatch to which are subscribed the names of 
Lord Mayo, Lord Napier of Magdala, Sir John 
Strachey, and Sir Richard Temple, 'earnestly 
desired that it might be found practicable to 
carry out the project, which would be of con- 
siderable, but not paramount importance to 
India,' and were ' decidedly averse to any 
promise of pecuniary assistance being made.' 
It was added : ' We cannot consider the project 



THE CANAL CONCESSIONS. 45 

of such vital and paramount importance to the 
interests of India as would justify us in placing a 
charge upon the resources of the Empire for its 
construction or maintenance.' " 

Since the report of this committee, the mono- 
poly of the Suez Canal route, as the best short 
route, seems to have been firmly established; 
and British diplomacy has therefore been 
seriously occupied with it, to the exclusion of all 
others. 

The war has raised some important questions 
relative to the Suez Canal, and there has been 
much talk of " neutralization," in its broadest 
sense ; but ;the expression of British opinion on 
this matter, through Lord Derby's utterances in 
Parliament, has shown, that the nation which 
has made the canal its highway to India, and 
supplies three-fourths of the tonnage passing 
through it, will never consent to this ; because it 
would bar the passage of its own war vessels and 
troops, in certain contingencies. 

The transit through the canal is governed by 
the concession of January, 1856, which regulates 
the relations of the Canal Company with Egypt 
and Turkey, the proprietors of the domain, of 
which the following is the text : — 

" Aet. XIV. — We (Khedive) declare solemnly, 
for ourselves and our successors, the Great 

Maritime Canal from Suez to Pelusium, and its 

C2 



46 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

dependent posts, open for ever as neutral ways, 
to every commercial vessel, proceeding from one 
sea to the other, without distinction, preference, 
or exclusion, either of persons or nationalities, 
subject to payment of dues," etc. etc. 

But this privilege, it will be seen, covers only 
commercial vessels, not those of war; and the 
Porte and Khedive have so construed it, by 
giving notice that Eussian war vessels shall 
not be allowed to pass. The war vessels of 
friendly Powers, on making requisition, have 
never been denied the privilege, although there 
is nothing in the concession to give them a 
right to do so. In the Abyssinian war England 
made effective use of the canal. The canal is 
still included in Egyptian territory — the right of 
" eminent domain" never having been conceded 
to the company — and has been leased to that 
company for ninety-nine years, at the expiration 
of which term the Egyptian Government may 
enter into full possession, on paying to the 
company the value of the plant and material.* 

Unless the financial condition of Egypt should 
greatly improve in the interval, the property is 
not very apt to change hands and revert to 
Egypt, at the expiration of that term. 

* See Appendix A. 



CHAPTEE ni. 

OLD AND NEW CAIRO. 

Approach to Cairo — Sights and scenes en route — Wayside views and 
voices — " Backsheesh, Howadji ! " the same old tune — Nature and 
man unchanged — Startling changes in the environs of Cairo — Dis- 
appearance of walls and appearance of new boulevards, a la 
Haussmann — Surprises in store for the returning pilgrim after ten 
years' absence — What cannot now be seen from Shepheard's balcony 
— Cairo as it was and as it is — The old quarter and the new. 

"We approached Cairo about sunset, hot, tired, 
and dusty after our ride through the desert, the 
fine sand of which, blown by a strong steady 
wind, drifted in through the crevices of the 
closed windows, and powdered our persons and 
dresses with a perfect coating of impalpable 
dust. After reaching the cultivated region 
we were freed from this annoyance, and the 
latter half of our journey was very agreeable. 
The general appearance of this cultivated 
country, and. the sights and sounds that greet 
you at each successive railway station, are much 
the same as of yore, and familiar to all old 



48 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

Egyptian tourists. These seern stereotyped, and 
you still see the same flat garden-like country, 
with its eternal carpet of verdure of different 
shades in patches, presenting the appearance 
of a vast farm from the absence of trees. You 
pass numerous Arab villages, with their clusters 
of mud-huts, swarming with chickens and 
children, crowned by the domes and minarets 
of the small mosques, which give a pictorial 
aspect to their squalor. You see long lines of 
laden camels swinging, and hideous water-oxen 
plodding by, and the inevitable old Arab in the 
single blue shirt jogging by on the donkey, so 
small that the man's legs with difficulty avoid 
touching the ground. At each station, looking 
out of the window of your carriage, you en- 
counter the usual salutations from the small and 
exceedingly dirty orange and water vendors, all 
children ; e and dirty hands of professional or 
amateur beggars are thrust in the window, with 
hoarse, guttural prayers for " backsheesh ! " the 
owners of all of which voices seem clad in the 
same old blue rags they wore years before. An 
adjunct to this scene is usually a group of 
soldiers, either just enlisted or just discharged, 
who are squatting on their hams, chewing sugar- 
cane or smoking — always waiting for something 
or somebody, and distinguishable from the sur- 
rounding crowd only by being cleaner and better 



SIGHTS AND SCENES BY THE WAYSIDE. 49 

dressed. They are the mildest mannered 
soldiers in the world. 

It is unlucky for the traveller, and for the 
population, that during his transit hy rail he 
comes in contact with the idlest and least 
attractive portion of the natives, who hang 
around the stations to pick up a few paras or 
piastres. Taking these as fair specimens, his 
estimate of the population would be low indeed. 

But it is on approaching the Cairo station 
that the great improvement of that city and its 
suburbs, becomes perceptible to the visitor who 
has been absent for several years. He rubs his 
eyes, and almost distrusts his vision ; for, looking 
up the Shoubra road which leads into Cairo, as 
well as outside the former limits of the city, 
where formerly stretched for miles fields under 
cultivation, he now sees, far as his eyes can 
reach, in every direction well-built and even 
palatial residences, surrounded by gardens, 
adding on new cities, for several miles. The old 
Cairo was formerly surrounded by high and mas- 
sive walls, and entered by a wide gate, both of 
which have disappeared, while broad boulevards 
open an easy way into the city and out to the 
desert. Passing over where wall and gate used 
to stand, new surprises await the returning 
visitor. The old has given place to the new ; 
and blocks of high buildings have replaced the 



60 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

picturesque old tumble-down erections of mud 
and wood, four stories high, with jealously- 
latticed windows jutting out into the street. 

But when you descend at Shepheard's Hotel, 
your astonishment reaches its climax, and you 
rub your eyes as hard as Eip Van Winkle ; for 
the great characteristic feature of the Cairo of 
old, the Ezbekieh — the pride, the glory of the 
city and people — has utterly vanished ! Where 
once waved the branches of the stately syca- 
mores planted by Mehemet Ali, are now to be 
seen only solid blocks of stone houses, with 
arcades in imitation of those of the Kue de Bivoli 
at Paris. Over three-fourths of the space 
formerly occupied by that primitive garden- 
wilderness, so dear to the memory of its old 
habitues, who used to sit every evening and 
night under its grand trees, sipping coffee and 
smoking nargilehs, on those Cairene nights 
brighter than western days, while an endless 
procession of natives and Levantines passed 
under its leafy arcades, are imitation European 
houses and shops. The garden has vanished like 
a dream. The same change has swept over the 
aspect of all four sides of the square which sur- 
rounded that great park, or garden, whose dis- 
appearance I have lamented. The quaint old 
Eastern buildings, with their latticed windows, 
and entrances beneath by a small door pierced 



THE OLD AND THE NEW GARDENS. 51 

in a thick wall, through which you passed into 
an inner open court in which was tethered a 
donkey, passing up a flight of break-neck, narrow 
winding stone steps to enter the house — all 
these, too, have followed the Ezbekieh, and their 
fronts at least are now on European models : 
square, formal, uniform, hideous-looking imita- 
tions of the ugliest architectiire in the world, 
replacing the most picturesque, if not the most 
comfortable or convenient. A small portion of 
the old Ezbekieh has been saved from the 
building mania, but so "translated" that its 
oldest friend scarce recognizes it as an acquaint- 
ance ; for, originally the least wooded and most 
unattractive portion of the old open space, it 
has been converted into a French or German 
tea-garden, under the auspices of a French orna- 
mental gardener, partly on the trim Versailles 
model, partly in imitation of the Bois de 
Boulogne, with even its little artificial lake with 
swans in it, and small mock- steamers for sailing 
over three feet of water. 

The garden, however, which boasts of about 
forty acres, enclosed in a high railing, is a very 
pretty one, and in hot weather affords a most 
pleasant retreat from the dust and glare of the 
outside world. It has rock grottoes, and restau- 
rants, and also an open-air theatre ; and every 
afternoon one of the military bands " discourses 



52 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

most excellent music " for public benefit. But 
the foreign population is too lazy or too busy to 
come every evening ; and the band, punctiliously 
performing daily, wastes its sweetness generally 
on the heedless ears of a few nurses and children, 
reinforced by an occasional traveller. On Sun- 
days and religious festivals, however, there is a 
crowd ; and a very motley crowd it is, composed 
of all the numerous races that go to make up 
the nationality we designate the Levantine. 

The natives — especially the lower class — have 
abandoned the spot, squatting, smoking, and 
story-telling elsewhere, in more shady and less 
formal precincts. To find them at home, you 
must now either go into the country, or burrow 
down into those portions of the city, which the 
march of improvement and the Khedive have 
not yet reached. 

Passing through this garden, and under the 
long colonnades of the new buildings that hem 
it in, you emerge on the old Mooskie — as the 
quarter of European shops is called — and here 
you recognize an old acquaintance, but little 
smarter or more European than formerly. The 
fine new shops (many of them worthy of Paris 
or London) are in the Ezbekieh quarter, newly 
built ; while here the small Levantine traders 
and shopkeepers still vend then miscellaneous 
wares in unchanged dirt and squalor, in the 



THE OLD EZBEKIEH AS IT USED TO BE. 53 

midst of crowds of natives, waddling along on 
foot, or mounted on donkeys, circling around the 
unclean street like flies, with apparently as little 
industrial effort — a good-tempered, dirty, un- 
improvable tribe, whom water and improvement 
never touch. 

But the banished old Ezbekieh of twelve 
years ago is not the only lost vision for which 
the returning pilgrim vainly strains his wonder- 
ing eyes. Other equally familiar friends, once 
daily visible in his walks and rides about the 
city, have equally disappeared. 

As he was wont to sit under the stately syca- 
mores of the Ezbekieh, there used, at eventide, 
to prance gaily by a cavalcade of gay and gal- 
lant-looking Eastern cavaliers, splendidly habited 
in Oriental costume, mounted on Arab steeds of 
great beauty and price, whose crimson velvet 
Turkish saddles were stiff with cloth of gold, 
and whose silken bridle-reins were studded with 
precious stones. Preceded by the running 
Berber syce, in his picturesque costume of white 
shirt, crimson sash or belt, and bare legs of 
ebony, and attended at the stirrup by pipe- 
bearer, nargileh in hand, whose long flexible tube 
was often in the hand of the rider, these proud- 
looking beys and pachas used to file slowly by, 
looking neither to the right nor the left, to 
the admiration of the motley crowd ever circu- 



54 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

lating about or squatting under the trees of the 
Ezbekieh. 

Then also, ambling past on their sleek donkeys 
— huge bundles of black silk like unto balloons, 
and with impervious veils, through which only 
two bright eyes were perceptible, escorted by 
the zealous eunuchs — could be seen in part the 
ladies of the hareem : disdainful of side-saddles, 
and riding astride like men, as a yellow shoe 
perceptible on each side of the donkey conclu- 
sively proved. 

To these sights on the Ezbekieh there were 
added many others of a purely Oriental cha- 
racter ; such as the long string of laden camels, 
with their serpent-like neck and crests, grunt- 
ing hoarsely as though in complaint or wrath, 
as they swung along their ungainly bulk and 
burdens, moving the two legs on the same 
side simultaneously. Occasionally, but rarely, 
the carriage of some European or Europeanized 
pacha passed ; but that was the most unusual 
kind of locomotion. The small coffee-houses on 
the Ezbekieh — mere booths or sheds as they 
were — constituted an attractive feature on sum- 
mer evenings, when all the Levantine, and 
much of the Egyptian world — that strange 
amalgam of all races — came to sip coffee or 
fiery "raki," smoke and talk scandal, in front 
of these booths where chairs were placed ; while 



IMPROVEMENTS OF THE PICTURESQUE. 55 

a band of Italian exiles made music at intervals, 
passing round the hat for contributions. 

At the opposite side of the Ezbekieh, nearest 
the Mooskie, or street of Frank shops, the Arab 
population were accustomed nightly to assemble, 
squatting on their haunches in primitive Arab 
fashion, in a circle around some favourite story- 
teller giving them a re-hash of the " Thousand 
and One Nights' Stories," still current coin 
throughout the East; only with added coarse- 
ness, adapting them to coarser audiences. Here, 
too, came the dancing and singing girls, to 
win piastres or paras by the display of their 
respective crafts, in the open air, to delighted 
audiences. But, like the mirage of the desert, 
with the old Ezbekieh these sights and sounds, 
so truly Oriental, have passed away from the 
vision of the traveller, as he sits on the verandah 
of his hotel. All is now decorous, dull and 
European in the prim gardens, which usurp a 
portion of that vanished pleasure-ground, which, 
picturesque as it was, must be confessed to have 
been a public nuisance in many respects, how- 
ever "sentimental travellers" may bewail the 
substitution of cleanliness and order for dirt and 
disorder, savoury for unsavoury smells. Much 
sentimental rubbish has been written about this 
improvement of Cairo ; but, in a sanitary and 
progressive point of view, no sensible man or 



56 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

woman, however sentimental, can deny the im- 
provement and growth of Cairo, under the 
demolishing tendencies of the Khedive. The 
change in the modes of conveyance, however, 
may merit regret ; for now, instead of " mount- 
ing barbed steeds," the pachas and beys, and 
other native gentlemen, who used to be seen 
prancing by in all their bravery, loll lazily back 
in open victorias or barouches, drawn by sony 
jades, and driven by very dirty Arab charioteers, 
smoking strong cigars of German origin, and 
habited in Frank dress, with only the red fez 
cap to mark their nationality. 

The carriages of the Khedive, of his sons, and 
of some of the ministers, are well appointed, 
with fine horses, and still preceded by running 
syces, and accompanied by guards in uniform ; 
but the great majority of these turn-outs would 
not pass muster on London cab-stands. It 
must be" confessed, that to see Egyptian officials 
and private gentlemen lolling back in carriages, 
and smoking cigarettes or cigars in place of 
pipes, does bewilder old Eastern travellers ; and 
that such will also mourn the disappearance of 
the pipe and nargileh, formerly the symbol and 
pledge of Eastern hospitality, since the chi- 
bouque was always tendered to every guest by 
public and private persons, until another regime 
abolished them. They have been " improved" 



VEILED FEMALE APPAKITIONS. 57 

away ; and, save in the public coffee-houses and 
among the common people, the cigar and cigar- 
ette have superseded them. 

In the outdoor life, the only touch of the 
Orient left is afforded by the constant apparition, 
or rather flitting by of the hareems, whose fair 
representatives very freely take the air, and pass 
and repass constantly in front of the great 
hotels, wherein the travellers do congregate, in 
their well-guarded carriages — one of the last 
relics of the old system visible to the eye. Yet 
their habits, too, have undergone a great 
change. No longer are they ambulating or 
equestrian balloons of black silk perched on 
donkeys, or concealed in closed carriages; 
although the inevitable and irremovable black 
guards still " guide their steps and guard their 
rest," as in the days when Byron sung of them. 
Standing in the front of your hotel, you see the 
veiled fair ones of the hareem slowly borne past, 
at morning and eventide, in the neatest Parisian 
or English coupes, drawn by the finest English 
horses, and dressed in the latest Parisian modes 
— all except the face, which, half-hidden, half 
revealed, is covered with a gossamer veil, which 
also drapes the bosom. This veil, of the most 
cobweb lace, does not prevent their seeing and 
even saluting occasionally the passing stranger, 
to the great disgust of their sable guards ; and 



58 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

the intensity with which they regard the outer 
world from the windows of their carriages, 
augurs well for their thirst for information. All 
the follies of European fashion have been, I am 
told, transferred to the East ; for European 
costume is now the rage in the hareems, and 
Lyons silks of brightest colours, and French 
boots with impracticable heels, have succeeded 
the flowing draperies and shuffling slippers and 
baggy breeches of the Eastern fair ones. Frank 
women who have visited freely in the hareems 
for the last two winters, deprecate this change, 
fully as much as any of our sterner sex can do : 
and declare that it not only robs the hareem of 
all its romance, but most decidedly diminishes 
the peculiar beauty of its inmates. 

The Isma'ilieh quarter of Cairo is entirely a 
new creation within the last six or seven 
years, and is one of the prettiest portions of 
the city. In order to encourage the erection 
of good houses for the European and Euro- 
peanized residents, and to attract new ones from 
abroad, the Khedive offered to give building 
lots, of the value of ,£2000 and upwards, to 
every person who would build thereon a house 
of a fixed value ; rising in proportion to the 
estimated worth of the gift. The bait took, and 
the lots mapped out in the rear of the great 
hotels, where there were no buildings, on the 



THE ISMAILIEH QUARTER OP CAIRO. 59 

outskirts of the city, in the direction of Bonlak — 
the old port of Cairo — were soon snatched up ; 
and a new town of several thousands of houses 
soon occupied the site. Most of these are good 
substantial houses, in imitation of Swiss chalets 
or English houses, and some are very fine, 
costing as much as ,£20,000. Almost all have 
gardens surrounding them, some very spacious 
ones ; for reserved lots were purchased by enter- 
prising natives in the vicinity. These latter are 
chiefly the native or Levantine bankers, who 
are the richest class in the community ; and 
some of the pachas have also built large houses 
on the Eastern plan, hareem accommodation 
included. One of the largest and finest of the 
Frank houses is that of Mr. Remington, the well- 
known arms-manufacturer, who has armed the 
Khedive's troops. The Duke of Sutherland is 
another foreign real estate proprietor at Cairo ; 
the English Club occupying one-half of the large 
house he caused to be built. 

I do not know the exact population of the 
Ismailieh quarter; but it includes a greater 
portion of the foreign population of Cairo, with 
a large sprinkling of richer Levantines. Some 
of the dwellings are quite palatial in their pro- 
portions, and there is very little of the Eastern 
element perceptible about them generally in this 
neighbourhood ; even the inevitable black Boab 



60 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

(or door-keeper) of former times, in loose shirt, 
naked legs, red morocco shoes, and ample 
turban, with shaven head and snowy beard, 
having disappeared. His sole duty used to be 
his real or supposed guardianship of the gate or 
door leading into his employer's house ; where, 
night and day, he was to be seen squatting or 
stretched at length on his cafass, or palm-twig 
seat and bed, the Cerberus of the establishment. 
But he was a solemn old fraud as to his police 
functions, I am sorry to say, although a most 
pictorial one — a Cerberus not even requiring a 
sop to silence him : habitually asleep all day, 
and generally requiring to be awakened by 
visitors of good intentions ; and either revelling, 
or prowling about like a dissipated old mouser, 
at night, when he was supposed to be the 
guardian of the gate, in reality as well as in 
name. Still he was a necessary adjunct to 
Eastern life, and especially to the picturesque 
presentation of it. 

He was evidently the parent and progenitor of 
the French concierge, and like him or her a 
domestic spy, paid by the occupant of the house 
he does not protect ; and in all disagreeable 
features the European imitation is a greater 
nuisance than the Eastern — the latter, at least, 
being civil to his master and to strangers ; the 
former, like the ancient Roman, regarding every 



CHANGES OF CLIMATE AT CAIRO. 61 

stranger as an enemy. Yet I confess I miss, at 
Cairo, the grisly old vagabond " dweller of the 
threshold." 

The last Government census of Cairo dates 
from 1868; and in the interval of nine years, 
as the natural increase, especially among the 
native population, is rapid, the figures in that 
return mostly fall far short of the actual numbers 
to-day. 

In that table the number of strangers resident 
at Cairo is given as 19,120, but the list includes 
some strangers of Eastern origin. The total 
population of the capital at that date is esti- 
mated at 350,399, males and females, although 
of course the female population must be taken 
on trust by the census takers ; owing to the 
domestic arrangements of the native Cairenes. 

It struck me — returning after an absence of 
several years, three seasons since — that the 
climate had perceptibly changed, being colder in 
winter and hotter in summer than formerly. It 
certainly is more damp ; and rainy and cloudy 
days, which used to be very rare apparitions, are 
now not unfrequent in winter, and fires, morning 
and evening, quite necessary for comfort during 
such changes of the weather. This is accounted 
for by the larger space of water open to evapo- 
ration all over the Delta and through the desert, 
by the canals of various kinds, which have been 



62 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

so greatly increased in number and size during 
the last ten years. 

Finally, with all due respect to the " spirit 
of the age," as exemplified at Cairo, and the 
Khedive's improvement of my favourite city, I 
must express the opinion, that for that climate 
the old system of narrow streets, and exclusion 
of too much sunshine, together with the old 
plan of Eastern building, were best suited to the 
climate, place, and people. 



CHAPTEE IV. 

THE FOUNDERS OP THE DYNASTY. 

Meliemet Ali — Soldier of fortune — Satrap and viceroy — Parallel 
between the Napoleons of the East and of the West — His strange 
career — Dreams of an Arab empire, like that of the caliphs — Why- 
he failed in establishing it — England's interposition — Page of the 
trapped Hon — Cloudy close of a bright day — Personal traits and 
anecdotes of Mehemet Ali — His son Ibrahim, regent and successor — 
His short lease of power — Can his dream be now fulfilled? — Eeasons 
for the establishment of an Arab empire at the present moment. 

Augustus boasted that he found Eome of brick, 
and left it of marble. 

Mehemet Ali, founder of Egypt and of the 
present Egyptian dynasty, within the memory of 
men yet alive, found Alexandria a mass of ruins 
and rubbish, a nest of needy fishermen and 
pirates, and left it a city. He found all Egypt 
a chaos, he left it a country. 

The Egypt of the Pharaohs, familiar to all 
readers of the Old Testament, and the Egypt of 
the early Christians, so vividly depicted in 
Kingsley's u Hypatia," where Goth, Greek, and 
Eoman struggled for the mastery, differed not 



64 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

more widely from each other in all respects, than 
from the country we know by that name to-day ; 
which, in its turn, varies as widely from the 
Egypt of the Mamelukes, known to the previous 
generation. 

For the impress of the first Napoleon was 
not more strongly stamped on the empire he 
founded, than that of Mehemet Ali upon the 
country" and the dynasty of his creation : wrung 
from his trembling suzerain, the Sultan, at the 
sword's point, and welded together by one man's 
genius and courage. 

As the bronze equestrian statue of " the Napo- 
leon of Egypt" looks proudly down to-day from 
the Grand Plaza of Alexandria, seeming to keep 
watch and ward over the city of his love : so the 
mighty shadow of its founder still seems to rule 
Egypt from its urn, and protect it from the 
shortcomings and sins of some, if not all, of his 
successors. 

There are curious coincidences in the cha- 
racters and careers of the two " men of destiny " 
in the East and in the West. Both were aliens 
in blood and birth to the countries and people 
over which they established their rule, and 
founded their dynasties. Both were soldiers by 
profession, and statesmen and lawgivers by intui- 
tion. Both were crafty, cruel and unscrupulous, 
never sacrificing the end for the means, nor 



AN HISTORIC PARALLEL. 65 

shrinking from acts of ruthless cruelty, when policy 
or self-preservation prompted their commission. 
The ambition of each was to found an empire, 
and to obtain the succession for his son and his 
son's sons for ever ; and this too both seemingly 
accomplished. What is stranger still, is that 
the heritage left by the rude Eastern soldier of 
fortune, has lasted longer than the far greater 
one bequeathed by the mighty genius of modern 
Christendom, whose puppets and playthings were 
kings and crowns. As though to complete the 
parallel, the two were almost as kindred in fate 
as in renown; the end of each being equally 
tragic. The Corsican ate out his own heart in 
exile on the barren rock of St. Helena ; the 
soldier from Cavalla died a prisoner in his own 
palace, the ghastly wreck of his former self, his 
fine mind and iron will shattered by madness, 
alternating between moody despondency and 
frenzy, until his practical deposition became a 
State necessity, and his warrior son, Ibrahim 
Pacha, was compelled -to seat himself in the 
chair of his yet living father. As though to 
make this sad story sadder still, it is said the 
madness came from a potion administered 
through superstition or mistaken kindness by 
one of his daughters, who was told she could 
thus restore the old man's waning powers, but 
whose fatal draught consigned him to a living 



66 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

death. True or false, the story is still repeated 
and believed in Egypt. 

His dream of empire he soon converted into 
a reality. From insubordination to the Porte, 
he soon broke out into open rebellion ; and not 
only seized on the Egyptian provinces, but 
invaded both Arabia and Syria, through his 
warlike son Ibrahim, and even menaced Con- 
stantinople. His troops actually occupied Syria, 
and his purpose was to found an empire like that 
of the caliphs, over all the Arabic-speaking 
people ; leaving the Porte those only who spoke 
the Turkish tongue. But then a greater power 
intervened between the rebellious vassal and the 
powerless lord ; the Great Powers of Europe 
(with the exception of France) interposed, and 
by menace and force of arms wrested the prey 
from the old lion, and compelled him to renew 
his allegiance, and renounce his projects of ex- 
tended* empire. 

It required the presence of an English fleet at 
Alexandria, to compel him to sign a treaty of 
peace with his sovereign, and resign his con- 
quests ; tearing out handfuls of his white beard 
in his wrath, under the compulsion, while he did 
so. But he insisted on the retention of the 
viceroy alty in his line for ever, and for quasi- 
independence of the Porte in the same treaty 
guaranteed by the Powers which compelled the 
act of abdication. 



MEHEMET ALl'S CHARACTER. 67 

What Mehemet Ali did, in and for Egypt, has 
passed into history. He created not only an 
empire, hut a people, out of the dozen different 
nationalities which then, as now, constitute the 
strange amalgam we vaguely term Egyptians. 
Everywhere throughout Egypt and its depend- 
encies, the hand of the mighty master is still 
to be seen in the traces it has left — from the- 
Mahmoudieh Canal, connecting the waters of the 
Nile with the Mediterranean, to the fairy-like 
pleasure gardens of Shoubra, near Cairo ; from 
the gigantic, but still uncompleted barrage, or 
breakwater of the Nile, to the grand old syca- 
more trees, which give their beautiful shade to 
the gardens and the roads around Cairo and 
Alexandria. The career of Mehemet Ah is as 
familiar to every one as that of Napoleon, whose 
footsteps he followed in the conquest of Egypt ; 
and whose fiercest foes (the Mamelukes) he 
crushed at one fell blow, combining craft, 
cruelty, and treachery in the act which self- 
preservation dictated. The man's character 
should not be judged by this episode alone, nor 
weighed in our balance ; for he was capable of 
being swayed by high and generous impulses — 
with more of the lion than the wolf in his 
nature — and the necessity was very pressing and 
very sore. So it is but fan* to judge him by the 
canons of his own time, place, and people, which 



68 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

condoned his crime, and the terrihle retribution 
dealt on the savage oppressors and spoilers of 
Egypt, who menaced his life, and meditated 
against him the treachery in which he antici- 
pated them. 

Rid of this impediment, by alternate force 
and fraud he worked his way doggedly on to 
place and power: subduing first one province, 
then another, in the name of his suzerain, the 
Sultan, and welding together into one mass, and 
under one rule, the scattered and warring tribes 
and factions composing Egypt. Nor did he 
confine himself to those limits, but carried fire 
and sword and the terror of his name into the 
desert, among the tameless Bedouins, then, far 
more than now, the scourge and terror of the 
peaceful peasant who had aught to pillage. 
Having done all this in another's name, he began 
to be weary of vassalage to his inferior in mind 
and manhood, and commenced to plot and plan 
for shaking off his fetters, and founding an 
independent empire. 

He brought order out of chaos ; he invited 
and encouraged European immigration, and 
especially European merchants, to develop the 
rich resources of the country, neglected and 
despised by the warlike chieftains, who had been 
ruling it with a rod of iron, and, making it the 
theatre of perpetual little local wars. Yet his 



AN EASTEKN CANUTE. 69 

mistakes, like his successes, were on a great 
scale ; and inherited hy his successors too. 
Entertaining the notion, so common to unedu- 
cated minds, that a country to be independent 
and prosperous should produce within its own 
borders everything requisite for the use of its 
population, he sought to put this idea into 
practice in Egypt. Nature had made Egypt 
agricultural, Mehemet Ali determined she should 
be manufacturing too ! Regardless of expense, 
he imported large quantities of costly machinery, 
with skilled operatives at high wages, erecting 
vast mills all over the Delta, that manufactures 
on a large scale might be produced. The 
skeleton ruins of those mills, many of them still 
filled with the rusty remains of the machinery 
left there when the failure was manifest, attest 
the cost of the lesson given this Eastern Canute, 
whose will was to override all natural laws. His 
successors have not profited, as they should have 
done, by this useful lesson ; for similar wreck and 
waste may be witnessed to-day all over the 
country, both of mills and machinery, of later 
date than the days of the great founder of the 
line of viceroys in name, but kings in reality, 
one of whom still sits upon the throne of the 
Pharaohs. 

He also strained the finances of the country 

by his lavish expenditure, and it is curious to 

D2 



70 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

read in the annals of his contemporaries of the 
straits to which he was often reduced, and his 
sudden and inexplicable command of money 
from no visible source. History in Egypt re- 
peats itself more curiously than elsewhere, as 
well as the personal traits of its rulers, and the 
mystery which envelops the proceedings, not 
only of its officials, but of its finances, which 
have ever appeared and disappeared in a truly 
wonderful and inexplicable manner. 

The early period was the golden age for the 
foreign merchants, invited by Mehemet Ah to 
develop the commerce of the country, to whom he 
gave very large commissions for the purchase of 
what he required, and great facilities for enriching 
themselves. Englishmen, Greeks, and Italians 
came at his call, and established great houses, 
and were merchant princes indeed, their scale of 
living being proportionate to their vast opera- 
tions and immense gains. They lived in houses 
as large as palaces, kept large retinues of ser- 
vants and retainers, entertained magnificently 
and with the greatest profusion, and were lavish 
in expenditure. One of these, a Tuscan, kept 
twenty carriages, that he might always be able 
to send them to convey his guests to and from 
their residences; his palace, surrounded by mag- 
nificent gardens, being four miles out of town. 
Another reserved every Friday evening, during 



THE GOLDEN AGE OP EGYPT. 71 

the winter season, for a grand ball at his man- 
sion, in addition to grand dinners three times a 
week. The latter relic of those good old days 
survived to the patriarchal age of 90 years, 
in full possession of his faculties ; and continued 
his hospitalities down to the third generation of 
his guests. 

Grand as were the prizes offered, and great 
the fortunes accumulated in the days of the 
earlier viceroys, strange to say the number of 
Europeans attracted there was comparatively 
small always. As late as 1852 there were not 
more than 20,000 foreigners at Alexandria, and 
2000 at Cairo. Yet the absolute rule of Mehemet 
Ali may be said to have commenced full forty 
years before. 

If the viceroy was lavish of the earnings of 
his subjects, he was not sparing of their flesh and 
blood ; and the condition of the fellah, or agri- 
cultural labourer, then was very much worse 
than his lot to-day, for he was then treated 
as a slave and serf {adscrijptus glebce), whose 
labour was compulsory, paid by enough coarse 
food to keep body and soul together, and enough 
rough covering to conceal partially his or her 
nakedness. He could not leave his native 
village to settle elsewhere without special per- 
mission from the governor of his province. If 
he ventured he was caught, bastinadoed, and 



72 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

taken back tcf his usual toil in the usual place, 
if not sent to the army or the galleys. By forced 
corvees he was compelled to labour on the public 
works without pay, and often without food, 
unless he brought it with him, through the 
rascality of the subordinate officials, who robbed 
him of that which the Government was supposed 
to supply, but never stinted him of the basti- 
nado. In fact, he was treated like a brute, and 
compelled to live like a beast. His lot is cer- 
tainly somewhat ameliorated now, yefc there is 
still great room for improvement in the condi- 
tion and treatment of the Egyptian peasantry- 
the most amiable, patient drudges in the world, 
constituting as they do the bone and muscle 
of the country, and the source of all its wealth 
and productiveness. 

When Mehemet Ali caused the Mahmoudieh 
Canal to be dug by fellah labour, cutting a broad 
ditch to -connect the waters of the Nile with the 
sea at Alexandria — a work of vast utility before 
the railway communication existed — he is said 
to have sacrificed to it the lives of many thou- 
sands of these poor wretches ; set to dig with no 
proper tools, under the burning sun of Egypt, 
labouring day and night under cruel task- 
masters, without food or shelter. The pyramid 
of skulls erected by the savage Eastern warrior, 
was not a sterner memento mori, nor a more 



THE FELLAH OF FICTION AND REALITY. 73 

tragic record, than the Mahmoudieh Canal. The 
terrible burden of the old song — 

" A pickaxe, and a spade, a spade ! 
Ay ! and a winding sheet," 

might have been chanted by these poor 
wretches of the Nile, who thus dug their own 
graves while digging this canal. But on this 
subject I shall have more to say when treating 
of the fellah as he was and as he is ; not the 
"fellah" of M. About's charming fiction, but 
the grimy and oppressed reality, owing all the 
blessings he enjoys chiefly to God's good grace, 
and his hardships to " man's inhumanity to 
man," which does literally "make countless 
thousands mourn " in the old house of bondage, 
where the nominal slave has not really the 
heaviest fetters to wear. 

To return to the maker of Egypt. Although 
totally uneducated, and therefore destitute of 
much general information, the natural genius of 
the man and his quick mother- wit supplied to a 
great extent his want of culture. His readiness 
of retort was worthy of a French wit. One 
illustration may suffice + o show its quality. A 
French engineer being asked what he thought of 
the plan of the Mahmoudieh Canal, while it was 
in course of completion, ventured this criticism : 

" Your Highness must pardon my suggesting 
that your canal will be very crooked." 



74 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

" Do your rivers in France run in a straight 
line ? " abruptly responded the Pacha. 

" Certainly not," answered the astonished 
Frenchman. 

"Who made them? Was it not Allah?" 
again questioned the Pacha. . 

" Assuredly, your Highness," replied the 
Frenchman, who thought his questioner's wits 
were wandering, and could not comprehend what 
he was aiming at. 

" W T ell, then," answered Mehemet Ali, trium- 
phantly, " do you think that either you or I 
know better than Allah how water ought to run ? 
I imitated him in my canal ; otherwise it would 
soon have been a dry ditch, not a canal." 

The Frenchman was silenced, if not con- 
vinced ; and the canal is certainly very crooked 
still. 

Like all Eastern rulers, the grim old warrior, 
nursed from boyhood in the lap of war, was to a 
certain extent a voluptuary, although he never 
allowed his pleasures to interfere with his duties 
or his ambitious schemes. The gleaming white 
walls of the palace of Eas el Tin, which first 
strike the traveller's eye on entering the harbour 
of Alexandria, mark one of his favourite re- 
sorts. Another was the garden of Shoubra, near 
Cairo, in which he built a spacious kiosque of 
white marble, embowered in tropical foliage, 



THE PACHA'S PLEASURE PALACE. 75 

where the golden orange glows in the midst of 
the dark green foliage, and the senses ache with 
the perfume of roses and other fragrant flowers. 
It was a lofty building in the form of a hollow 
square ; and in the central open space, over 
which there was no roof, like the old impluvium, 
was an artificial lake, about four feet deep, 
paved with marble, with an elevated marble 
resting-place in the centre. 

Here, when his beard was like snow, and his 
blood circulated more slowly, the old man was 
wont to repair, to relax mind and body from 
the fatigues and cares of State. Perched on 
this central seat, he would amuse himself for 
hours, watching the gambols or the fright of his 
hareem women, who he would cause to be rowed 
or paddled about in small boats around this 
mimic lake, at a secret signal from himself to 
the boatmen causing them to be upset into 
the water, and witnessing with delight their 
struggles afterwards. Strange contrariety of 
human nature ! that this grim old soldier, 
whose savage nature and fierce eye (as we see 
in his latest portraits) even years could not 
tame or subdue ; stained with the blood of the 
slaughtered Mamelukes, and surrounded by 
tragic memories, should have found pleasure in 
such childish sport as this, even when trembling 
on the verge of the grave ! 



76 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

But in every Eastern nature — which essen- 
tially differa from the Western — we find the 
extremes of ferocity and levity blended incon- 
gruously together ; and the Pacha who inspires 
you with fear or with admiration one moment, 
by some childish act converts both into con- 
tempt or pity. But Mehemet Ali was an ex- 
ceptional man, both in the evil and the good he 
wrought in and upon Egypt, of which the latter 
predominated. Let us bury the former and for- 
get it; in memory of the latter, which lives 
after him, and embalms his memory in the 
annals of modern Egypt. 

Of his successor for a short term, his warrior 
son Ibrahim, who swept like a flame through 
Syria and Arabia, and was the sword-hand of his 
father, his military genius was his chief cha- 
racteristic, and the record of his battles the 
record of his life. The pious care of his son, 
the present Khedive, has erected a fitting monu- 
ment to his memory, in the spirited equestrian 
bronze statue, which he has caused to be placed 
at Cairo, overlooking an open square near 
the Mooskie, or quarter of European shops. 
Mounted on his war-horse, which seems to snuff 
the battle afar off, with outstretched arm point- 
ing out farther conquests to his fierce followers, 
he looks every inch a soldier, and born leader of 
men on the battle-field. What his abilities as a 



CAN MEHEMET ALl'S DREAM BE REALIZED? 77 

civilian or viceroy may have been he did not 
reign long enough to develop ; and he has there- 
fore leffc no mark upon Egyptian administration 
or Egyptian affairs ; though, during his adminis- 
tration as his father's representative in Syria, he 
is said to have displayed considerable adminis- 
trative ability. Personally he seems to have 
been a bold, frank man, a warm friend, and 
equally good hater, though not vindictive or 
cruel ; but, as before remarked, it is as a soldier 
chiefly that he will be remembered. He once 
visited London, and was known to the ragged 
boys of the metropolis, to whom a Turk, was 
then a rarity, as Abraham Parker! into which 
they translated his patronymic, on the phonetic 
principle.* 

In view of recent events, and of the impend- 
ing disintegration of that huge colossus, by 
courtesy styled the Turkish Empire, over whose 
broken fragments there must be a European 
scramble ere long, the question now suggests 
itself, whether the Power which thwarted the 
project of Mehemet Ali, might not now wisely 
resuscitate and perfect it ? 

An Arab empire, with Egypt at its head, em- 
bracing Syria and Palestine on the one - side, and 
Arabia on the other, under a protectorate of two 
or more of the Great Powers, would oppose a 

* His reign lasted but seventy days after his inauguration. 



78 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

breakwater to Russian aggression on tlie one 
hand, and relieve that alien race from the exac- 
tions and misgovernment of the Porte, which 
has amply proved its unfitness to govern, and 
which in fact does not govern them ; the limits 
of its authority being those of its garrisoned 
towns, outside of which protection from native 
sheiks is essential for the traveller's safety, and 
of whose nominal rule the tax-gatherer is the 
only representative. Such a rule as has made 
Tunis a responsible government, and is redeem- 
ing Egypt from its " Slough of Despond," by the 
introduction of real, not sham, improvements in 
its internal administration, could as readily be 
established over the countries I have named, 
combined into a federation, whose centre would 
be Egypt, as the Arab-speaking country, already 
so far advanced on the march towards civiliza- 
tion. 

It se*ems equally impossible now, to allow the 
rich countries named to languish much longer 
under the sickly beams of the waning Crescent, 
to be annexed to the Russian Empire even in 
part, or to be allowed to relapse into still greater 
anarchy than that which reigns therein to-day, 
in view of their importance strategically and 
commercially, lying as they do in part on the 
route to India. Among the various propositions 
made as to the partition of the Turkish Empire, 






AN AKAB EMPIEE. 79 

it strikes rne as surprising, that British statesmen 
have not, as in the case of the Suez Canal, 
reconsidered and reversed the policy of their 
predecessors, and made the dream of old 
Mehemet Ali, which they so rudely dissipated, 
a reality in the hands of his successors ; under 
good and sufficient guarantees and proper 
securities that the powers thus conferred 
should not be abused, but exercised for the 
benefit and improvement of the most intelligent, 
docile, and laborious of all the races of the East, 
whose only ties to the Turk are now, as they 
ever have been, those of faith, subjugation, and 
taxation. 

My own experience of these countries and 
people convinces me, that the accomplishment of 
this scheme would be comparatively easy now — 
far easier, in fact, than that which the gallant 
Gordon is now attempting, in the interests of 
civilization and humanity, among the savage 
negro races of Central Africa. 



80 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 



CHAPTEE V. 

ABBAS PACHA. 

Accession of Abbas Pacba — Personal description of him — His peculiar 
character and habits— A Turk of the Turks — Contrasted with Said 
Pacha — His treatment of his people — The new " house of bondage " 
under him — His closing tragedy— A dead man's drive — His son 
El-Hami — A fated family line. 

Mehemet Ali and Ibrahim Pacha were before 
my time in Egypt, and of them I speak merely 
from history and from hearsay, having associated 
subsequently with those who had been inti- 
mately acquainted with both these rulers of men . 
All of {heir successors I have known well, and 
have been brought into intimate official and 
private connection with for many years. Of 
them therefore I can speak from personal know- 
ledge, including the Khedive Ismail, who in- 
herits many of the traits of his great progenitors 
as an administrator and manager of men, but 
whose ambition, though equal to his ancestor's, 
does not work through the sword or through 
force, but through diplomacy and persuasion. 



DESCRIPTION OF ABBAS PACHA. 81 

Between the reigns of Ibrahim Pacha and the 
Khedive's two others intervened, those of Abbas 
Pacha and of Said Pacha, who though partaking 
of the same blood, and members of the same 
family, differed from each other in every par- 
ticular and in every quality, physical and moral. 
Far as the poles asunder were these two men, 
and as opposite the impression made and left 
by each of them upon their common heritage. 
Abbas was a sullen, suspicious, timid tyrant, 
hating and fearing the European -element his 
grandfather had introduced, and striving to put 
back the shadow on the dial-plate of progress 
moving in the direction of European civiliza- 
tion. Though born and bred in Egypt, he was a 
Turk of the Turks. 

His complexion was much darker than that 
of the majority of his family, most of whom are 
fair, with reddish beards. Abbas was swarthy, 
with a scanty beard, short and stout of figure, 
with a bloated, sensual face, and dull, cruel eyes. 
Yet there was both energy and intelligence 
manifested in this repulsive countenance, when 
warmed into interest or animation on any 
matter that touched him nearly. His manners, 
like those of all high Turks, were bland and 
polished ; for in all that constitutes perfect good 
breeding the Eastern surpasses the average 
Western man. Of his morals the less said the 



82 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

better, if Alexandrian and Cairene gossip can be 
relied on. But on this point I cannot testify 
from personal knowledge, not having ever been 
on the same intimate terms with him, socially, 
as with his two successors. 

He understood and spoke no European 
language — an exception in his family, all the rest 
of whom have a thorough knowledge at least of 
French — and therefore always conversed with 
foreign agents, whom he saw as seldom as 
possible, through the medium of an interpreter, 
which of course prevented much interchange 
of ideas or feelings ; for decanted champagne 
frappe is not natter .or colder, than conversa- 
tion thus carried on. If in his- relations with 
foreigners he was unsympathetic, in his conduct 
towards his own people he was arbitrary, rapa- 
cious, and cruel to the last degree. The 
possession of wealth was often only a passport to 
Fazougli (the Egyptian Cayenne) for its pro- 
prietor, and the confiscation of the property, 
"for treason," to the State (that is, the vice- 
roy's) coffers. 

With foreigners he could not meddle — they 
were safe under their consular protection — nor 
could he expel them for the same reason; but 
trade was crippled under his reign, since even 
his avarice, which was great, could not conquer 
his prejudices, and induce him to encourage and 



A TEICK OF THE TURKS. 83 

foster the commerce of the country. With his 
own people his will was law : for he paid heavy 
backsheesh to Constantinople, partly to be let 
alone, and partly in the hope of changing the 
succession in favour of his son, El-Hami — a 
dream which every viceroy has indulged in, and 
which the Khedive has finally made a reality. 

El-Hami was afterwards married to one of the 
Sultan's daughters, and kept in splendid slavery 
at Constantinople — as the sons-in-law ever are — 
and was finally drowned while on a pleasure 
party; being of a gay and festive turn of mind, 
and much addicted to the wines as well as the 
customs of France. 

During the reign of Abbas the Crimean war 
broke out, and the Sultan called on his vassals 
for men and money, to which Abbas promptly 
responded ; and Egyptian blood and treasure 
were as freely poured out as water on the sands, 
then as now, to protract the death agony of 
the effete and imbecile dynasty of the Sublime 
Porte . 

At the same time came an order from the 
Porte to expel from Egypt the entire Greek 
colony there, not enrolled as rayahs, or Chris- 
tian subjects of the Porte ; a measure the cruelty 
of which may be appreciated, when it is stated 
that the execution of this harsh measure would 
have entailed swift and sure ruin on that whole 



84 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

community, numbering many thousands ; among 
whom were many of the oldest and most respect- 
able of the foreign residents and merchants. 
Their protests were not listened to, and they 
were given but forty-eight hours to leave the 
country. The consular corps, as a body, having 
declined to interfere in their behalf, on account 
of the political complications of their respective 
countries, it was my good fortune to have been 
enabled to take the responsibility of retaining 
and protecting these luckless people during the 
continuance of the war, by placing them under 
the protection of my flag — a privilege accorded 
all Christian Powers under the old capitulations — 
after much trouble, and diplomatic and personal 
pressure on the viceroy. 

I must do Abbas Pacha the justice to say that 
in this matter he showed either good feeling or 
indifference, and did not press the execution of 
the stern edict with zeal. On the contrary, when 
representations came from the agents of other 
foreign Powers, as to his non- execution of this 
order, he simply shrugged his shoulders and said : 
" What can I do ? These people have obtained 
another protection, and I cannot interfere with 
them, without insulting a great nation." So, after 
much diplomatic correspondence, the Greeks 
remained in Egypt, and the order was practically 
never enforced, except in a few instances where 



A FATED FAMILY. 85 

the parties were noisily partisan in their demon- 
strations or conversation. After the war was 
over, the King of Greece proffered me the Grand 
Cross of Sauveur, as a testimonial of his, and his 
people's gratitude. 

The character of Said was precisely the reverse 
of that of his nephew. A bold, frank, fearless, 
and reckless man, fond of foreign society, speak- 
ing French like a Parisian, and enjoying, of all 
things, the witty turns of which that language 
is capable ; himself a wit of no mean calibre, 
and equally irreproachable in his cook and his 
cellar. It was like emerging from darkness into 
sunshine when he succeeded Abbas, who, though 
his nephew, preceded him under the provision 
of the firman decreeing that the succession 
should pass to the " eldest male of the blood of 
Mehemet ALL" Abbas was a little older than 
Said, and so inherited, owing his own succession 
to the terrible tragedy which removed his father 
from the line. That father having been sent by 
Mehemet Ali to demand tribute of a semi-savage 
chief in the Soudan, surnamed the " Tiger of 
Shendy," having insulted and struck him, was 
deliberately roasted alive in his tent the same 
night, together with his whole troop, by his 
treacherous and vindictive host, who surrounded 
the tents in which they were sleeping with 

dried corn-stalks and drove them back with 

E 



86 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

their lances into the flames when they songht 
to escape. The fate of Abbas was as tragic 
as that of his father, he too perishing by perfidy 
and violence ; and the shadow of his coming 
doom seems to have been stamped both on 
his countenance and his soul. He forboded 
that fate, and took extraordinary precautions to 
avoid it ; and those very precautions rendered 
its execution all the more easy, although he sur- 
rounded himself with guards, banished men on 
mere suspicion, and ate no food that was not 
prepared by his old mother's hands, or under her 
immediate supervision. 

Nothing is more indicative of character and 
disposition than the choice and surroundings of 
a man's residence. Mehemet Ali, Ibrahim, and 
Said, all dwelt much in the public eye, chiefly 
at the palace of Eas el Tin looking on the sea, 
accessible to all comers. Their leisure hours 
they solaced either in the lovely gardens of 
Shonbra, where the plash of fountains, the scent 
of roses, and the songs of birds created an 
earthly paradise, which earthly houris were not 
lacking to complete ; or they rehearsed the game 
of war under tents, with from 10,000 to 20,000 
troops around them. 

But Abbas lived as he died, alone. Seldom 
seen by his people, never by foreigners, except 
from necessity, his favourite haunts were secluded 



THE CLOSING- TBAGEDY. 87 

palaces, remote from cities and men, which he 
built in the desert. There, surrounded only by 
a few cringing slaves, and by the savage beasts he 
collected into menageries, he shrouded himself 
like Tiberius at Capri, and was as solitary in his 
death as in his life. He was strangled while he 
slept by two of his own slaves — boys sent him 
from Constantinople by a kinswoman — but the 
exact manner, as well as the inciting cause to 
his murder was, and is still, a mystery. The 
fact only is certain, as well as that of the ghastly 
farce which was played by the Governor of Cairo 
with the corpse of the dead man. 

Summoned secretly and suddenly from Cairo, 
at the dead of night, to the Benha palace, 
twenty miles from Cairo, where the deed was 
done, Elfy Bey, the Governor of Cairo, gave 
strict orders that no one should divulge the 
death of Abbas. Ordering the state carriage 
to be brought to the private entrance, assisted 
by the head eunuch, he placed the body in a 
sitting posture within it, and taking his own 
seat opposite as usual, drove the twenty miles 
to Cairo, surrounded by guards and the usual 
state, in this ghastly companionship. He 
reached the citadel at Cairo with his mute 
companion, without exciting suspicion, aided by 
the habitual shrinking from observation which 
characterized his master ; and once there, caused 



88 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

the guns of the citadel to be pointed on the city, 
strongly reinforced the garrison, and declared 
the truth, together with his intention of pro- 
claiming El-Hami viceroy in defiance of the 
rights of Said. This purpose he was induced to 
abandon on representations of Sir Frederick 
Bruce, the English consul-general, and myself 
— both of us then at Cairo — and our friendly, as 
well as formal warning that such action on his 
part would be treasonable, induced him to 
abandon the design, and to invite and welcome 
the new viceroy to Cairo ; whither he came and 
was installed, without delay. The days of that 
governor were not long in the land, as he died 
very soon and very suddenly thereafter : removed 
doubtless by some super-serviceable courtier — 
for the character of Said forbade even the sus- 
picion of his complicity in any act of treachery 
or cruelty. 

But throughout the East, from the rivalry 
produced among brethren, through the system 
of polygamy producing separate families under 
the same roof, with separate interests, and in 
princely families more especially, a man's worst 
enemies are often literally "those of his own 
household ; " and hence there has been little 
love lost among the descendants of Mehemet 
Ali. Said collected the scattered sticks of the 
faggot which Abbas had divided ; but on his 



A DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD. 89 

death they were scattered again — the two 
nearest in succession, Mustapha and Halim, 
settling down at Constantinople, where the 
Porte promoted them to high offices, and kept 
them in terrorem over the head of Ismail. Of 
these, Mustafa, who was a great intriguer and 
able man, much distrusted by the Khedive, died 
but a year ago, and his family have been sent 
for and taken charge of by Ismail, who has also 
gained possession of his great landed estates, 
which Mustafa sold before his death. Halim 
is still alive ; but his lands, too, including the 
Shoubra gardens, have also passe L into the 
Khedive's hands. It is he whose succession was 
set aside by the Sublime Porte, in favour of 
Tewfik, the son of Ismail, but four years since. 
He holds, or did hold, one of the portfolios 
at Constantinople, and of him more anon ; as, 
on the impending break-up of the Ottoman 
Empire, he and his claims may come to the 
surface again some day. 

The young prince El-Hami was generously 
treated by Sai'd, who allowed him to retain the 
bulk of his father's fortune, and showed friendly 
dispositions to him ; but he died early, and with 
him ended the line of Abbas, whose wealth, too, 
passed away like an exhalation, in the hands of 
his improvident and reckless son. 

But Abbas, as a ruler, was to a certain extent 



90 THE KHEDIVE S EGYPT. 

a success. He so managed the finances of 
Egypt as to keep clear of debt. Under his reign 
the railroad system was inaugurated — chiefly, it 
is true, under English pressure — to meet the 
wants of the Indian transit ; agriculture was 
encouraged and developed, and many of the 
wild projects of his predecessor discontinued. 
Little as he loved the foreigner, he was cunning 
enough to see the uses to which he migHlfc be 
put ; and though he did not encourage immigra- 
tion, he did not interfere directly or openly 
with the trade and commerce carried on by the 
foreigners. The foreign agents, with whom -he 
could only converse by proxy, were his bad 
dreams, and he avoided them as much as pos- 
sible — far less dreamed of entertaining them, as 
did his successor, on a scale of truly princely 
hospitality. Under him, Egypt increased and 
prospered materially, but not socially or morally; 
and the condition of the fellah di.ring his term 
was that of a dumb drudge, a patient ox, for 
whose mental or bodily improvement his task- 
master had no care. Such was the condition of 
"the house of bondage" when Said succeeded 
Abbas in August, 1854. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE REIGN OF SAID PACHA. 

Said Pacha's accession — The new era introduced by him — Reversal 
of his predecessor's policy, and private conduct — Attempt to bind 
' together the family faggot — His social habits — His great fetes — 
His princess, Ingee Khanum — His personal appearance and character 
— Resemblance physically and morally to " Bluff King Hal " — His 
military mania — Life under tents, and black knights in chain armour 
— His work in Egypt — A bright dawn and stormy sunset. 

With the accession of Said Pacha a new era 
may be said to have commenced in Egyptian 
administration. He was one of the younger sons 
of Mehemet Ali, by a different mother from 
Ibrahim's, or the father of Abbas, and bore the 
traits of his fair Georgian mother in complexion 
and figure. Carefully educated by an accom- 
plished French tutor (Kcenig Bey), who took 
good charge of the morals as well as of the mind 
and manners of his pupil, Said Pacha was 
a gentleman in our acceptation of that term, a 
good French scholar, with some knowledge of 
English, a man of large and liberal views, and 
extremely fond of association with Europeans 



92 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

whose manners and habits he had adopted in 
his private life : with the exception of course 
of his hareem arrangements. 

In policy, as well as in his habits and modes 
of thought, Said was the direct opposite of his 
predecessor ; and it was he who gave the first 
strong impulse to the improvements and pro- 
gress which have, within the last twenty-two 
years, placed Egypt in the van of the great 
march of Western civilization eastwards, and 
given, the performance as well as the promise ot 
reform in administration and national life. For, 
in reversal of his predecessor's policy of isolation, 
he at once inaugurated a large and liberal 
policy of expansion. He invited and encouraged 
European immigration, and under his reign the 
foreign colony more than doubled its numbers. 
As late as 1854 the European residents at Alex- 
andria did not exceed, if they amounted to, 
20,000, and there were not more than 2000 at 
Cairo, with a few scattered over the villages in 
the Delta, representing Alexandrian houses. By 
encouraging foreign immigration, surrounding 
himself with European employes in the different 
administrations, inviting eminent engineers, and 
removing many of the restrictions on trade and 
commerce imposed by Abbas, the new viceroy 
gave a powerful impulse both to the agricultural 
and commercial development of the country 



SAID pacha's characteristics. 93 

As his great father made the first step in the 
creation of the country, so Said may be credited 
with the second in its expansion, as the Khedive 
is entitled to the credit of having done much more 
to perfect what his predecessors planned. He 
recalled all the members of his own family from 
Constantinople and elsewhere, as well as many 
state prisoners languishing at Eazougli, and 
sought to make himself the father of his family 
connection, as well as of his people. In regard 
to the latter, he was fond of repeating the wish 
of Henri Quatre, when he said the height of 
his ambition was " that every peasant in his 
dominions should have a fowl in his pot every 
Sunday for his dinner." As far as he could, 
Said carried out this sentiment ; as I shall 
show when treating the subject of the Egyptian 
labourer later on. 

The stranger who attended one of his recep- 
tions, or the entertainments which he gave on a 
scale of great magnificence, blending the Euro- 
pean and the Eastern styles, and who fancied an 
Egyptian prince must be an Othello, with " a 
sooty visage," was ever surprised to find a coun- 
terpart of the portraits of Henry VIII. of Eng- 
land, in complexion, beard, face, and figure, in 
Said Pacha. The similarity in temper, manner, 
and character was equally striking, though the 

bluff manner w r as redeemed and softened, on 

E2 



94 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

public occasions, in the viceroy by that exqui- 
site polish of manner, in which the Turkish 
gentleman excels. Even as regards the multipli- 
city of wives, the Englishman was more Eastern 
than Said : whose princess, Ingee Khanum, still 
surviving and living in state as his widow, 
one of the most charming and accomplished of 
Eastern women, by the concurring testimony 
of all who know her, shared his throne and his 
affections exclusively to the end of his life. 

Said Pacha was fair, with a ruddy complexion, 
and reddish beard and hair ; his features were 
regular, the expression of his face frank and 
open. His figure was large and muscular, indi- 
cating the immense personal strength which 
increasing corpulence and illness marred in his 
later years. His eyes though small were bright, 
and he did not, like most Turks, keep them 
habitually half closed ; but they had none of the 
sleepy langour of his race, but flashed with fun 
or blazed with anger, as his excitable temper and 
changing mood moved him. Neither did he 
avoid a direct glance at his interlocutor, in 
Eastern fashion, but looked straight in the face 
of the person with whom he was conversing. 
His readiness of wit, and the charm cf his con- 
versation (conducted in French, which he spoke 
as his mother tongue), rendered him a delightful 
companion ; and he was convivial at the table, 



SAID'S HOSPITABLE HABITS. 95 

without going into excess — drinking wine in 
moderation, ever of the most superior quality. 
His "French cook," who was an Arab, used 
to prepare for the breakfast dishes worthy of 
the most famous Parisian restaurants ; Said 
appearing in the loose Turkish summer dress 
he wore in private, which made him look like a 
huge bale of cotton, being all of fine white linen. 
Generous to a fault, and liberal to prodigality, he 
pushed those virtues to excess, and was deceived 
and preyed upon by many whom he rewarded 
and trusted., until, like most princes, he became 
soured and distrustful in his later days. After 
a long and most intimate acquaintance with 
Said Pacha, without being blind to his faults 
and shortcomings, I can truly say that, in my 
widely varied experience of men and countries, I 
have met no nobler and manlier nature than his, 
either Christian, Turk, or infidel ; and in his 
early prime, before disgust and disease had 
warped, though they never obliterated, his higher 
traits of character, he was every inch a king and 
a gentleman by God's own patent. In imitation 
of Mehemet AH, and in direct contradiction to 
Eastern etiquette, Said Pacha courted pub- 
licity, and was more easy of access than Euro- 
pean monarchs, hedging himself in with as few 
formalities as he possibly could, in consonance 
with the prejudices of his people, who are strong 



96 THE KHEDIVES EGYPT. 

believers in "the divinity that doth hedge a 
king." He gave grand fetes continually, to 
which all European men were free to come, 
whether invited or not, at which he entertained 
the foreign consuls-general and distinguished 
visitors to Egypt right royally. His open-air 
fetes, in which thousands participated, renewed 
the recollections of the " Thousand and One 
Nights," with the variegated lamps suspended 
from the trees of his palace parks, and the 
Oriental costumes of his courtiers and people. 
To these the European ladies passing through 
Cairo frequently came, hut uninvited ; the march 
of Erank customs not having yet been accele- 
rated to the pace now followed by the Khedive, 
whose balls at Ab-din every winter are exact 
copies of European royal entertainments. 

Said Pacha's natural instincts were those of a 
soldier,, and as happily he had no opportunity of 
indulging them in actual warfare, he amused 
himself with its mimicry — paid great attention to 
the recruiting, equipment, drill, and manoeuvring 
of his army, which he raised to the number of 
50,000 men, and" spent much time under tents, 
taking a large force with him into the desert to 
drill and manoeuvre. He changed the Stambouli 
or " Erank " uniform, adopted by Abbas, back 
into the more appropriate Eastern costume ; and 
in addition to his 30,000 or 40,000 infantry in 



BLACK KNIGHTS IN CHAIN ARMOUli. 97 

baggy breeches, and jackets of white with metal 
buttons, equipped several squadrons of horse in 
fancy style. 

One of the most striking of these was a troop 
of gigantic Nubians, clad from head to heel in 
the chain armour of the early Crusaders, with 
their black barbs in like panoply; and a grim 
troop they looked, with their jet black faces, 
black barbs, rolling white eyes, and rattling 
chain armour. Another troop seemed sheathed 
in gold, with bright brass breastplates on horse 
and man, and glittering brass helmets on the 
riders — preserved from sunstroke, under that 
burning sun, by special grace of Allah alone. 

His dinners were frequent, and the effect 
produced by alternate layers of European and 
native down the whole length of the long 
festive board, presenting such striking contrasts 
in costume and nationality, was curious in the 
extreme. The viceroy and the foreign agents 
dined at the head of the table on a raised plat- 
form, and the entire service at each remove was 
of gold, the epergnes, candelabra, etc., being all 
of the same precious metal. The ladies of the 
hareem, of course, were never visible ; but, in- 
visible to us, bright eyes looked down and 
watched the repast from peeping-places above, 
the hareem wing giving a view of the banquet- 
ing hall, so that the princess and her visitors 



98 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

could amuse themselves with, the spectacle, with- 
out the trouble of eutertaining the guests. 

His restless nature kept him as busy in work 
as play. He was ambitious of leaving a high 
record behind him, and lent an ear to all schemes 
of public improvement and utility. He sum- 
moned Robert Stephenson, and a small army of 
engineers, to make several lines of railway, ii] 
addition to the one commenced under Abbas, 
which at his death was completed only to Cairo ; 
and during his whole reign that work went bravely 
on. He employed the famous French engineer, 
Mougel Bey, to carry out the great breakwater, 
the Barrage of the Nile (to this day unfinished). 
He caused new canals to be cut and opened 
for irrigation ; improved the condition of the 
fellahs, and tried to make large landed proprie- 
tors out of the more intelligent among them ; 
removed onerous taxes and restrictions ; built 
model villages for the fellahs ; and finally, when 
M. de Lesseps returned to Egypt — after leaving 
the French diplomatic service, in which he had 
served before in Egypt, while Said was a youth — 
took him under his patronage and protection, 
gave him the concession for the Suez Canal, 
which has made the fame and fortune of that 
energetic and adroit projector, and gave such 
practical aid, pecuniary and moral, subsequently 
to De Lesseps and his work, as insured the 



SAID pacha's life-work. 99 

success of both ; in comrnerrioration of which 
the Mediterranean mouth of the canal bears his 
name. He also adopted the telegraph, extending 
the wires, not only from city to city, but high up 
the Nile — a startling innovation in Egypt, where 
the old semaphore signals had hitherto been 
regarded as the perfection of telegraphic com- 
munication. He introduced steam pumps and 
steam machinery of all kinds, for agricultural 
purposes, into Egypt, and kept Father Nile within 
his bed, out of which, as now, he annually at 
a given time roused him, to take a run over 
the country, instead of allowing him to tumble 
out himself in primitive fashion. The annual 
revenues of Egypt rose, under his judicious 
management, from its imports and exports, to 
£6,000,000 per annum — an increase to which the 
American civil war conduced, by creating a great 
demand and higher prices for Egyptian cotton. 
Kemarking to me, on the breaking out of that 
war, " "Well, if your people stop growing cotton, 
I shall be glad to supply their place," he did 
strain every nerve to do so, greatly enriching 
Egypt by the increased production of that 
staple. 

Before that war he had sent large orders to 
America, and obtained large supplies of American 
locomotives and open railway carriages, which he 
considered best adapted for the hot climate of 



100 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

Egypt : ordering a very grand one for his private 
use, including house and kitchen as well. 

He had connecting lines of rail run up to the 
back doors of his palaces, and when bored by 
visitors or consuls-general, would slip away in 
this house-carriage and stay somewhere on the 
road for several days, as a practical joke. I saw 
him last shortly before his death, in the summer 
of 1862, at Paris, whither he had gone to consult 
a famous surgeon as to the internal disease 
which was then destroying him. His increasing 
feebleness was rendered more perceptible from 
the huge bulk of his body, swollen and flaccid 
by disease. But his mind seemed still vigorous, 
though his eye was dull ; and his manner had lost 
little of its old charm, and his powers of retort 
were as keen and caustic as ever. He saw and 
submitted to his rapidly approaching doom, with 
the blended stoicism of the fatalistic Turk, and 
the resignation of the French jphilosophe, both 
of which characters were blended in his. 

He died not long after, and was interred, not 
among the others of his line, who have stately 
mausoleums near Cairo, bat in the burying 
ground of a small mosque in the centre of Alex- 
andria, where his mother's remains also rest. 

If the early morn of Said Pacha's reign was 
bright and smiling with promise, its close was 
dark and dreary enough to add another to the 



A BRIGHT MORNING AND CLOUDY SUNSET. 101 

many examples, from " Macedonia's madman " 
to the Swede, to prove the vanity of human 
hopes, and the nothingness of human grandeur. 
He mounted the throne of Egypt in 1854, a gay, 
hopeful, ardent man, with vigorous health, 
boundless power, and almost inexhaustible 
wealth. He left it but nine years later for a 
premature grave ; his strength wasted to childish 
weakness by disease and trouble ; hope, fortune, 
friends, all lost ; and, with a soul as sick as his 
body, welcomed death as a release from suf- 
fering. 

At my last interview with him, he expressed 
deep regret that he had saddled his country with 
a public loan and a public debt ; and that he 
repented of it. "When he died, I believe the 
public debt of Egypt did not exceed £5,000,000. 
What it now is, under the fatal facility of credit, 
and the new system of " financing " introduced 
into Egypt, and flourishing like a poisonous 
fungus for twelve years past, the world has been 
informed through the reports of the financial 
surgeons sent from Europe to probe and cure, 
if possible, the gaping wound. 

In justice to the Khedive of whom, once the 
spoiled and petted favourite of Europe, few now 
have a good word to say, it must be stated that 
he treated Said's royal lady, and his only son, 
Toussoun Pacha (who died the other day), like 



102 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

a king and a kinsman ; and still continues so to 
do to the surviving widow, who keeps up a state 
and commands a respect second to none in the 
reigning house, and is treated with equal con- 
sideration and courtesy by the Khedive himself. 
Toussoun he married to one of his daughters, 
and made Minister of Education. He was much 
respected and beloved, possessing his father's 
traits of temper without his force of character. 

Of Said Pacha, in conclusion, it may be said 
that, as he was human, he sinned and suffered, 
both as a public and a private man. His faith 
was that of Islam ; many of his ways were not 
as our ways ; his civilization was blended with 
barbarism ; but he was a brave, true-hearted 
man, a staunch friend, a forgiving enemy, a 
just, humane, and judicious ruler over the 
country which Providence had confided to his 
care. | Hequiescat in 'pace ! 



CHAPTEE VII. 

THE FOREIGN COLONY IN EGYPT IN OLDEN TIME. 

The foreign colony in Egypt, under the earlier viceroys — Classification 
of them — The merchant princes — The European army officers— 
Suleyman Pacha, or Colonel Seves, commander-in-chief — Some anec- 
dotes of him — Other conforming and non-conforming officials — Some 
curious specimens — Talking only Arabic! — Peculiar privileges of 
foreign consuls-general and their proteges— -The new mixed tribunals 
superseding consular authority — A few words about them, and the 
old doctrine of " Exterritoriality." 

I have already stated that the foreign element 
in Egypt, composed of Europeans and of Greeks 
educated in Europe, played a conspicuous part 
in the early history of Egypt, and that their 
numbers were largely recruited during the reign 
of Said Pacha, in consequence of his encourage- 
ment to and patronage of them. I have also 
slightly sketched the first pioneers of this tide 
of Western civilization, the merchant princes, in 
the preceding chapter. Of these, who came in 
with Mehemet Ali, and gradually lost both their 
monopoly of the trade, as well as of the heavy 
commissions attendant on royal orders for 



104 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

machinery, cotton goods, and other Western 
productions, in consequence of the competition 
of the later arrivals, it * is unnecessary to say 
more. 

Let us cast a hasty glance over the other 
classes composing this advanced guard of civili- 
zation, presenting as they do many curious 
subjects of contemplation and observation. 
Among these there were not many who found 
it necessary to become renegades, or profess or 
practise the creed and habits of Islamism. 

In the army was the Count Galeazzo Vis- 
conti, of Milan, a scion of the old Italian 
Viscontis, who held a captain's commission for 
years, but who never owned a uniform, put 
on a sword, or saw a review of troops, during 
his long stay in Egypt. Lord Palmerston's 
recommendation had obtained him his nominal 
rank and duty ; and there were a legion of 
such. Polish, Hungarian, Italian, Austrian, 
and Venetian refugees came and settled down 
in swarms ; some to useful pursuits, others 
to nominal ones, or sinecures under the 
Government. Among this latter class was one 
man of rare ability and acquirements, the 
Chevalier Geronimo Lattis, who, with Manin, 
had been one of the triumvirate of the short- 
lived Yenetian republic. His scientific abilities 
found a useful field in Egypt, and he was much 



THE FOREIGN COLONY IN EGYPT. 105 

consulted in agricultural matters by Said Pacha. 
I believe be still lives, and resides in Egypt. 

Another set of Christian employe's was taken 
from the class of r ayahs, or native Christians, 
composed chiefly of Armenians, Syrians, Greeks, 
and Coptic subjects of the Porte. These, though 
little favoured by Abbas, were brought promi- 
nently forward by Said Pacha, who made Arakel 
Bey — the brother of the now famous Nubar 
Pacha, and like him an Armenian Christian — 
Governor of the Soudan ; and Nubar himself his 
Minister of Foreign Affairs, though then quite 
a young man. The Copts, who seem to have 
a natural aptitude for figures and accounts, 
rilled, as they still fill, the public offices ; and the 
introduction of the railway and steam engine 
involved the employment of English engineers. 

So that the foreign colony waxed fat, and 
became a most important element in the de- 
velopment of the new Egypt of the successors 
of Mehemet Ah : as it continues to-day, when 
the control of the finances, of the railway, of 
the docks and harbours, in fact of everything 
but the army, as well as the great products 
of the soil, has passed into foreign hands. The 
Khedive has allowed himself to be treated as 
Gulliver was in the land of Lilhput — tied down 
by thousands of small threads, until he can 
neither move hand nor foot of his own volition. 



106 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

Will lie long continue to submit to this 
abdication of the highest functions of govern- 
ment, and entrust them to foreign hands ? Time 
alone can tell. 

An idea of the Babel of tongues prevailing 
in Egypt, where all nationalities, Western and 
Eastern, are represented, and where a man 
should be a polyglot to prosper in trade or pro- 
fession, may be formed from the statement that 
the transactions of legal proceedings there in- 
volves a knowledge of Erench, Italian, Greek, 
and Arabic, all four of which, together with 
other languages incidentally, must enter into the 
pleadings. 

Mehemet ALL, as an Albanian, was really more 
Greek than Turk, though professing and reared 
in the latter faith, in which he brought up his 
family also. But he was no fanatic — even more 
liberal in matters of faith than most Turks, who 
are models in the matter of toleration, unless 
their fanatical fervour is violently roused — and so 
men served him faithfully, he cared little for the 
creeds they professed. The same liberality of 
feeling has ever been evinced by his descendants, 
with the exception of Abbas, who was supposed 
to be fanatical; although he never gave much 
practical demonstration of it, except by sanction- 
ing by his presence the annual ceremony of 
the Doseh, when the returning head of the 



SULEYMAN PACHA'S STRANGE HISTORY. 107 

pilgrimage from Mecca rides over the bodies of 
a pavement of living men — a kind of Egyptian 
"Car of Juggernaut" ceremonial, which Said 
discontinued, and the present Khedive dis- 
courages; though I believe neither have been 
able entirely to suppress this cruel relic of 
barbarism. 

In consequence of this toleration, but few of 
the foreigners who sought the Egyptian service 
conformed, and became Mussulmen in faith 
and in mode of life. 

One notable exception to this was Suleyman 
Pacha, formerly Colonel Seves — a Frenchman 
who served on the staff of Napoleon in his 
Egyptian campaign, but remained after the 
French had left the country ; and being a skilled 
soldier, and a man of talent and energy, rose to 
the rank of pacha and commander-in-chief of the 
Egyptian forces; dying at an advanced age, only 
a few years since, in that position. Suleyman 
Pacha did not do things by halves, but in all 
respects conformed rigidly to the tenets and 
practices of his new faith to the day of his 
death, diminishing his license in the way of 
wine, and increasing it in the way of wives; 
living in every way in true Mussulman fashion, 
and keeping up the old hareem usages. I knew 
the old man, and met him on several occasions ; 
and a more thorough Turk outwardly, in appear- 



108 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

ance, manners, and habits, I never saw. Yet, 
when excited or irritated, the nature of the 
Frenchman would break through the conven- 
tional mannerism of the Oriental, and the old 
soldier of the Empire appear in full force. I 
never heard him speak of his old souvenirs, or 
make any reference to his past career. He 
avoided European society ; and when forced into* 
it by his official position, his reserve and 
reticence were truly Oriental. A stranger, 
watching the dignified old man in his Oriental 
costume, with his snowy beard falling on his 
breast, on which glittered the Order of the 
Medjidie : his grave and composed manner, 
and thoroughly Eastern aspect, would have 
regarded him as the true type of the high Turk. 
But one who knew his history, and marked the 
occasional twitching of the mouth under the 
heavy moustache, and the flash of the steel 
grey eye, sharp as a scimitar, could detect the 
French irritability and frivolity which were 
masked under the Turkish phlegm. 

He did his duty, however, thoroughly and 
well, and enjoyed the confidence of several suc- 
cessive viceroys, different in all respects ; dying 
in harness at last, a very old man, in the full 
odour of Egyptian Pacha-dom. 

He was a good soldier and a stern martinet, 
and greatly improved the efficiency and discipline 



TALKING- ONLY AEABIC. 109 

of the Egyptian army. The present head of the 
army is the Khedive's son Hassan, who is also 
Minister of War, promoted recently in place of 
Eatib Pacha, a Circassian, who made so bad 
a mess of the late Abyssinian campaign, throngh 
incompetence or "want of stomach for the 
fight," or probably from a combination of the 
two qualities. Snleyman Pacha evidently took 
a leaf out of his old commander's book; for 
the first Napoleon was philosophe under the 
Directory, His most Catholic Majesty as emperor, 
and a most excellent Mussulman at Cairo. 

There were other foreigners in the service 
who, without going so far as Suleyman Pacha, 
in dress appearance, and even in speech, com- 
monly passed for Turks with strangers. One 
most ludicrous exemplification of this I have 
frequently witnessed with great amusement, in 
the time of Said Pacha, when an Englishman, 
got up in thoroughly Oriental style, and speak- 
ing Arabic like a native, used to sit solemnly 
on his divan at the railway-station, over which 
he presided, and gravely listen, through his 
interpreter, to the complaints made by British 
officers and travellers from India, en route for 
Alexandria to embark for Europe. "Ask that 
lazy old Turk to stop making a chimney of 
himself, and mind his business, or we will ask 

our consul-general to ask his master to kick 

F 



110 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

him out of his place ! " and other such flattering 
remarks would fall apparently unheeded on the 
ear of the functionary, who sat cross-legged 
smoking, while angry British officers used such 
and stronger language, through their dragomen, 
who in turn would translate into Arabic the 
supposed substance of the observation. But 
not even the movement of a muscle or the 
twinkle of an eye would betray the farce he 
was playing ; for, had his interlocutors known 
he could understand their complaints, he would 
have been overwhelmed with them. Hence, he 
prudently kept his own counsel, and warned the 
dragomen not to betray him; and thus was 
enabled to smoke his pipe in comparative com- 
fort, while the traveller fumed and fretted away 
his wrath, without venting it on the wearied 
ears of the unmoved official. 

There were numerous other foreign employes, 
recruited from every land and language on which 
the "Western sun has shone, and political refugees 
from all the countries of Europe, whom the year 
of revolutions (1848) had driven abroad, and who, 
under some foreign consular protection, sought 
refuge and bread in the remote land of Egypt. 

The confusion of tongues, from the mixture 
of so many nationalities, still is made rubric on 
the walls of Alexandria and Cairo, where flaming 
posters are pasted up, either for advertising busi- 



CONFUSION OF TONGUES AND NATIONALITIES. Ill 

ness or amusement, in at least three or four 
languages, French, Italian, English, and Arabic 
— these being the most universally current, and 
most generally understood. 

Thirty years ago there were not more than 
6000 foreigners in Egypt. At present, by the 
consular registers, there are near 80,000 re- 
corded as residents in the country ; and adding 
to these a number in the cities and villages 
who are not down on those registers, or resident 
only during the winter months, the business 
season in Egypt, the Khedive's own com- 
putation of 100,000 foreign residents, made to 
me, must rather be below than above the mark."* 
The population of Cairo is about half a million, 
of which probably 20,000 may be Europeans; 
that of Alexandria, about 250,000, of whom 
probably 50,000 are resident Europeans ; though 
there are many Europeanized Greeks and 
natives, who cannot be strictly enrolled as 
foreigners, doing business there also; with a 
very large floating population annually visiting 
Egypt for business, health, or pleasure. The 
latter class spend much money in the country 
in various ways. 

The new mixed tribunals present the most 
curious illustration of the confusion of tongues 

In Appendix marked D will be found the tabular statement, 
taken from the consular registers. 



112 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

above referred to. They are as mixed ip. 
language as in law, and in the nationalities 
of the judges and clients, and require a small 
army of interpreters to act as intermediaries 
between their component parts. The native 
judges, who understand no language but then- 
own, and no law save that laid down in the 
Koran, of course must find the sessions rather 
tiresome : but preserve a most decorous judicial 
gravity under the mask of their habitual Oriental 
seriousness. The foreign judges, several of 
whom, on arrival, were innocent of knowledge 
of any but their native tongues, when plunged 
into this seething cauldron of the French civil 
law code, expounded by Italian, Greek, and 
English advocates in such French and Italian 
as ' they could master, and set to try cases in 
which Greek and Arabic witnesses and papers 
contained the evidence, must have felt, and 
must still feel, that "ignorance is not bliss" in 
their case. They must frequently imitate that 
energetic American judge, who, not being able 
to find the law requisite for making a just 
decision in a particular case, when asked by his 
brethren on the bench where he got his law from 
covering the case, responded : " Well, I made 
that decision by main strength." 

So must it often be in these mixed tribunals. 

The existence of these tribunals, now the 



THE NEW MIXED TRIBUNALS. 113 

overshadowing power in Egypt, superseding 
the consular authority which used to be omni- 
potent, as well as that of the Khedive, who 
was once the only High Court of Appeal in 
the country, but who now is (at least nominally) 
amenable to their jurisdiction, is due to Nubar 
Pacha. More than twenty years ago, in the 
reign of Said, he sought to persuade the consuls- 
general to divest themselves of their judicial 
powers, by consenting to the establishment of 
some such scheme. But neither the country 
nor the time was ripe for it ; and year after year, 
with dogged patience and inexhaustible resource, 
under different administrations, he persevered 
until his efforts were crowned with success. 
But by a strange fatality he was "hoist by his 
own petard." His unforgiven sin with his 
monarch is, that in tying the hands of the 
European diplomatic agents, and submitting 
all judicial decisions to what is practically an 
Egyptian tribunal, whose judges are paid out 
of the Egyptian treasury, he at the same 
time threw meshes around the Khedive, and 
imperilled if he did not destroy his sovereign 
prerogative. For the tribunal has affirmed its 
right to sit in judgment on the Egyptian Master 
of Legions, and decree against him, although 
declining to go through the form of insisting 
on enforcing judgments, for which it has not 



114 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

been put in possession of adequate means. 
Hence the anomalous and awkward position the 
two reciprocally occupy, vis-a-vis to each other. 
Under the old system — based on the doctrine 
of "Exterritoriality," which gave authority 
over the foreigner exclusively to the repre- 
sentative of his own Government, under the 
ancient capitulations — the consular courts exer- 
cised the power of pronouncing judgment, in 
contests between their own subjects and those 
of other nationalities, including the natives. 
Through the powerful pressure of their own per- 
sonal influence on the Egyptian ministers and 
the head of the State, they enforced justice for 
their people. That power and right foreign 
governments have abdicated (at least for a term 
of five years, two of which have expired), and 
it remains to be proven by experience whether 
the substitute is a good and sufficient one. 

It has certainly succeeded in clearing off much 
rubbish, in the shape of old reclamations against 
the Government, sitting as a court of claims, 
for which the Khedive should be grateful. It 
has also given the " happy despatch " to the 
multitudinous bankrupts, by a speedy and simple 
system of relief, in place of the complicated 
ones previously existing in consular courts, 
no two of which agreed ; and for this the foreign 
colony, which has had very bad affairs ever 



OLD DOCTRINE OF EXTERRITORIALITY. 115 

since the close of the American war, which 
induced over-speculation and ruin, should be 
duly thankful. These two kinds of work, I 
believe, constitute thus far the bulk of business 
done, except the settlement of small claims. 

The intervention of the tribunal in matters 
directly connected with the Khedive and his 
creditors, has not been either as successful or 
as satisfactory as in the two other matters, either 
to the Khedive : the judge (Haakmann) who 
pronounced judgment and tried to enforce it, 
and was compelled to resign in consequence : 
or finally to the creditors of the Khedive who, 
believing they had been presented with the 
oyster, have had to content themselves with 
the empty shells, thus far. 

But the test of time alone can show whether 
the tribunals, like Marshal McMahon, can or 
will be permitted to serve out their " quin- 
quennate," and renew it for another term. 
With the exception noted, thus far the machine, 
though over-cumbrous, and enormously expen- 
sive, seems to have run pretty smoothly."' 

The old system also of each foreign consulate 
attaching to it, as proteges, a number of native 
Christian rayahs, chiefly Copts, Greeks, and 
Syrians, and affording them countenance and 

* In Appendix C will be found some particulars relating to these 
tribunals. 



116 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

protection, which used to add so much to the 
power, influence, and prestige of the representa- 
tives of the Great Powers, and afford so much 
protection to the native Christians (though 
sometimes abused), has been almost if not 
entirely done away with under the new regime , 
to the great regret and loss of the class who 
used to be thus protected. The alleged evils 
of the old system I believe to have been 
greatly exaggerated, though there were some 
notorious cases of abuse of the privilege : as 
there must ever be when discretionary power is 
confided to incompetent or venal hands, and 
consuls-general must be supposed to vary as 
much in character and capacity, as all other 
public functionaries. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

Divisions of Modern Egypt : Lower Egypt, Middle Egypt, and Upper 
Egypt — The Soudan — Chief exports — Facts and figures — Popula- 
tion and mortality — Difficulties and drawbacks native rulers 
must contend against — Smelfungus at Cairo — His sources of 
information — An appeal for justice on behalf of the new masters 
of the " House of bondage " — Said Pacha's sad experience with his 
model villages — The new foreign employes — The Government 
more generous than just in some respects. 

Accobding to Caesar's " Commentaries," all Gaul 
"was divided into three parts." So is Egypt, 
viz., into Loiuer Egypt, or the Delta, contain- 
ing 2,650,563 feddans (acres) of land under 
cultivation, ninety-two towns and cities, and 
2253 villages or communes; Middle Egypt, 
containing 827,616 feddans of land, six towns 
and cities, and 114 villages ; Upper Egypt 
containing 1,146,041 feddans of land, fifteen 
towns and cities, and 658 villages ; making a 
total of 4,624,221 feddans of land under cultiva- 
tion, 113 towns and cities, and 658 villages or 

townships. 

F2 



118 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

Besides Egypt proper are trie provinces of 
Massawa, Souakim, and Taka, on the coast of 
the Eed Sea, and that vast province termed the 
Soudan. 

It is claimed that in the last fifteen years 
not less than 500,000 acres have been reclaimed 
for cultivation from the desert, being an average 
of over 70,000 acres per year added to the 
cultivated area of Egypt : and that 300,000 more 
are in process of preparation under the canal 
improvements instituted by the Khedive ; for, 
in Egypt, the desert may be made "to blossom 
as the rose " by the application of water only. 
The Central African annexations, uuder Gordon 
and his subordinates, bid fair to double Egypt's 
area and population. 

The chief exports of Egypt are cotton, sugar, 
and grain. Cotto?i, the culture of which was 
only introduced in 1820 by a Frenchman named 
Jumel" is now produced to the annual amount 
of about 600,000 bales, and furnishes Europe 
with one- eighth of its entire supply — four- fifths 
going to England. Sugar comes next ; the largest 
portion of which is exported to France, the 
next to England. Then come the cereals, the 
greatest portion of which goes to England also, 
in the proportion of ten to one to any* other 
country. 

Egyptian statesmen remark, with just pride, 



A FEW PACTS AND FIGURES. 119 

that their country, more populous in proportion 
than any country in Europe, is yet able to supply 
the inhabitants by her products, leaving an 
immense surplus for exportation ; and they also 
refer to the fact that her exports are double her 
imports— £14,000,000 in value to £7,000,000. 
Certainly a most satisfactory state of tilings, 
and indicative of prosperity. Much of this is 
due to the indefatigable efforts of the Khedive, 
who was a most successful and enterprising planter 
before he became Khedive, and whose expendi- 
ture in improving machinery and agricultural 
appliances has been on a scale as gigantic as his 
planting interest. 

Not to pile up here too many statistics, which 
are very dry reading, I shall add only a few 
figures which are curious and instructive, and 
then pass on to other topics. The number of 
domestic animals in Egypt (not including the 
mummied specimens in the bull, crocodile, and 
other pits, at Memphis and elsewhere), are esti- 
mated at about 300,000 horned cattle, 20,000 
horses, 94,000 asses, 36,000 camels, and 2500 
mules ; of sheep there are 175,000, goats 
24,000. 

During the year 1872 (the year of the 
rinderpest)* 14,000 head of cattle and 200,000 

* The horse disease broke out again at Cairo and the upper country 
in the autumn of 1876-77, supposed to have been imported from 
Abyssinia. 



120 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

sheep were imported into Alexandria for food. 
The average price of cattle at the great annual 
fairs at Tantah and elsewhere is double that of 
horses, and the same as that of camels. The 
land-tax of Egypt anually rises to upwards of 
£4, 500,000, that tax being about £1 per feddan 
(acre). The date palm is one of the great 
sources of the food of the country-folk, and 
about £200,000 per annum is derived from taxes 
upon its fruit. It is estimated that there are 
over 5,000,000 of date trees in Egypt of different 
varieties, producing about 20,000,000 cantars 
(cwt.) of fruit each season. The cactus is also 
cultivated on a large scale, and its pears eaten. 

With regard to Egypt's new acquisitions in 
Central Africa, when the geographical position, 
fertile soil, and products of the Nile basin are 
considered, their value to Egypt and to European 
commerce may be understood ; but the exact 
amount of that value depends on the uses to 
which its fertile soil and teeming population 
may be put. Its first, effect has been to divert 
to Egypt the produce of the Nile basin through 
her great artery the Nile, reviving the trade of 
Cairo and Alexandria. "When the railway com- 
munication is completed, penetrating far into 
the Soudan, that trade must be diverted from 
Zanzibar and the Eed Sea ports to its natural 
outlets. With so vast an area of fertile soil. 



POPULATION AND MORTALITY. 121 

and such, a teeming population, rich, in flocks, 
herds, and grain, and the natural products of 
Africa, hitherto the spoil of native traders and 
slave-dealers (synonymous terms), the experi- 
ment can and will be tried on the largest scale ; 
and Gordon Pacha is in earnest in his efforts 
to suppress the traffic of man in man, which 
makes Equatorial Africa a waste and a Pan- 
demonium. 

Egypt proper (not including its recent acqui- 
sitions in Central Africa, which have doubled 
its area and population) was, in 1872, about 
as large as Belgium, while its population was 
greater than that of that country, so prosperous 
and comparatively populous ; as well as of that of 
Sweden, Holland, Portugal, Denmark, and Nor- 
way — the density of the Egyptian population 
exceeding any of these. 

The population of Cairo is near 500,000, that 
of Alexandria about 215,000 ; and, in despite of 
the popular idea as to the health of Egypt (as 
the tables of mortality of its great cities, care- 
fully collected and published by the present 
Government, show), the mortality, except during 
the prevalence of epidemics — now becoming 
more rare and almost disappearing — will com- 
pare favourably with that of European cities. 
The vast improvements made and making in 
Cairo, in Haussmannizing the old town, must 



122 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

also increase its healthiness, though the climate 
is too enervating to suit European children. 
You see many people in the streets presenting 
the appearance of great age : but whether they 
are as old as they look I cannot say : for every- 
thing seems so precocious in this country, where 
girls of ten and boys of fifteen are marriageable 
and married. 

As to the mortality among the rural popula- 
tion (or fellahs) it is exceptionally small, proving 
that neither their condition nor their labour can 
be quite so bad or so heavy as sentimental 
travellers would persuade us : while their natural 
increase is very great, another proof of at least 
comparative physical well-being. Under the 
two last rulers the condition of the peasantry 
has been improved ; they have been not only 
permitted, but encouraged to become land- 
owners ; and the subdivision of property has 
commenced, which must increase with each 
year. The stories of forced labour and forcible 
recruiting, and cruelty to the fellahs by the 
Government employes (who, by the way, are not 
Turks, but men of their own race, often their 
own fellow- villagers), I am told by old residents, 
and myself believe, to be partly exaggerated : 
although I do not doubt that the system is radi- 
cally bad, and that there is immense room for 
improvement, both in the condition and treat- 



SMELFUNGUS AT CAIRO. 123 

ment of the fellahs ; nor that acts of hardship 
and cruelty are frequently perpetrated by the 
ignorant and often brutal agents of the Khedive 
or his Government, on the persons and property 
of his subjects. Travellers' stories, however, 
must be taken with many grains of allowance, 
owing not only to then lack of knowledge as to 
the character and customs of this most peculiar 
people, but also to their ignorance of the lan- 
guage, and the darkened medium of the drago- 
men through which both reach them ; the crass 
ignorance of most of these blind guides being 
only surpassed by their mendacity and desire 
astonish or shock the "Howadji" under their 
charge. 

I have often listened to conversations at 
Shepheard's table d'hote, from the returned Nile 
pilgrim, who had supped on the dragomanio 
stories, and it has reminded me more of the 
wonderful discoveries of French tourists in 
London as to the manners and customs of the 
English, which we find still circulated and swal- 
lowed across the Channel, than any other narra- 
tives of travel within my knowledge. Then, too, 
there is -Smelfungus, who was met by Sterne 
during his sentimental journey, " who travelled 
from Dan to Beersheba, and found everything 
barren." I am quite sure I have met him in 
Egypt, not once but repeatedly. Only last 



124 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

winter, at Cairo, lie sat near me at table d'hote, 
and I am satisfied he must be the same man. 
Lond of voice, arrogant in manner, big, burly, 
consequential, and surly, he seemed to occupy 
two places at table, and the growling thunder of 
his voice drowned the more subdued sound of 
conversation for some distance in his vicinity. 
Sitting very near him at table were two of the 
native employe's, easily distinguishable by their 
swarthy faces, straight-collared Stambouli coats, 
and red fez tarbouches of the Government regu- 
lation colour. Their presence seemed only to 
stimulate Smelfungus, who loudly abused the 
country and the Government, and described in 
harrowing terms the treatment of the fellah men 
and women by the pampered officials, and by 
order of the Khedive — relating instances of 
cruelty and oppression, as the rule and not the 
exception, which, if universal, would make Satan 
himself the only possible counsellor to the Khe- 
dive. What impression as to Frank courtesy 
and credulity Smelfungus produced on his un- 
moved Egyptian auditors, whose appetite his 
diatribes did not disturb, and who apparently 
took no notice of speeches they could not fail to 
hear, the reader can judge as well as I. 

It is indeed a great pity that Smelfungus and 
his class could not be kept at home by parlia- 
mentary enactment ; for they are petty instru- 



EGYPTIAN "HORRORS." 125 

merits of mighty mischief, in exciting national 
dislikes and magnifying misrepresentations. 
But free countries cannot take the precautions 
which despotisms may ; and which Eussia did for 
many years, according to general belief. 

Hence, when any " Egyptian horrors'' are 
put in current circulation, it is well to see if 
Smelfungus, inspired by his dragoman, be not 
then author. 

No government or population ever yet was 
improved by angry vituperation, or by " clothing 
them in curses as with a garment ; " and 
righteous indignation subjects itself to suspicion 
when it deals in vague generalities of accusation, 
and does not discriminate between cases that 
are universal, and those which are exceptional. 

I am no apologist either for the shortcomings 
or the sins of Egyptian administration in the 
interior : nor for the treatment to which the 
fellah population has been — and is, I fear, still — 
subjected by an arbitrary, arrogant, and irrespon- 
sible set of taskmasters and tax-gatherers, armed 
with almost absolute authority. Even to the 
heads of State themselves I have not hesitated 
to point out, nor (I must do justice to them) 
have those rulers, in response, frequently failed 
to admit and deplore, while declaring their 
inability to remove, the grievous burdens born 
by the fellahs in many ways, and the necessity 



126 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

ot improving their mental, physical, and social 
condition. Both Said and Ismail have grappled 
with this evil, and have been met with the 
irresistible opposition of the terrible vis inertia 
of Oriental apathy and fatalism — that dumb 
stupidity, against which Schiller says " even the 
Gods are powerless" — as well as by the corruption 
and cruelty of subordinate officials. 

Attempting to ameliorate the lot of the 
peasant, Said Pacha caused model villages to be 
constructed, with clean and comfortable dwell- 
ings, and, pulling down the fellah mud huts, 
transported the families to their new homes. 
Eighteen months after, I inquired how his model 
village was thriving. 

" You will oblige me, the next time you pass 
on your way to Cairo, to stop and see ! " was his 
reply. 

I did so, and found that the model houses had 
been cleserted, and were rapidly falling to ruin, 
while, like sugar-loaf ant-hills, on the outer circle 
were again grouped the mud huts, in all their 
primitive dirt and discomfort, with their fowls 
and filth and prowling dogs : into which the 
villagers, with their swarming families, had 
squatted down. Against ignorance and pre- 
judices well-nigh invincible, the tight is a hard 
one ; and when you reflect that similar igno- 
rance and barbarism prevails throughout the 



MORE GENEROUS THAN JUST. 127, 

whole country, and embraces all classes — except 
a very small circle in the cities and surrounding 
the Court — the difficulties of the administration 
may be comprehended, and allowances made for 
shortcomings - 

The substitution of the foreign in place of 
the native official, as the means of improve- 
ment and better government in the interior, 
thus far has not proved a success : as the long 
roll of that "noble army of martyrs," the 
African explorers, from Livingstone to Muzinger 
Pacha proves. The path of exploration and 
of civilization into Central Africa, like that 
across the desert, may be traced by the bones 
of the pioneers who have perished along the 
route. 

In the great Government centres, however, 
of Alexandria and Cairo it has worked well, 
although the selection of these foreign officials 
has not always been made with great judgment, 
nor has the state of the Egyptian exchequer 
been consulted as to their salaries and emolu- 
ments. While men of such eminent adminis- 
trative and executive capacity as McKillop 
Pacha, of the British navy (long in the Egyptian 
service, and of incalculable value to the Khedive 
in many ways), receive the most inadequate 
salaries, many of the recent importations, who 
possess neither a tithe of his abilities nor ex- 



128 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

perience of the country, receive four times trie 
pay for not one-fourth of the work which he 
does so thoroughly and indefatigably. I have 
never heard him utter a syllable of complaint — he 
is too proud a man for that — but the facts have 
fallen within my own knowledge, and I cite his 
ease simply as an illustration of a general truth ; 
applicable also to many of the ablest and oldest 
of foreign officials in Egypt : but without mean- 
ing to cast any reflection on the new-comers, 
several of whom are undoubtedly most efficient 
and useful public officers. 

It is certainly but just that the salaries of 
officials, transplanted there from England or 
France, should be , greatly increased, perhaps 
doubled, in view of the probable increase of 
expense in living (enormously high in Egypt), as 
well as of the interruption of their former 
business relations. But it really does not seem 
just, either to the old officials and employes, or to 
the " gentleman in difficulties" to whose relief 
they are called, that many of the higher officials 
should receive the salary of British ministers 
of State ! and that clerks should be paid in 
pounds what they got in crowns in England — 
from whence almost all these new employes are 
drawn, with only enough of Frenchmen to serve 
as a seasoning. 

If charity begins at home, so should ecomony ; 



THE NEW FOREIGN EMPLOYE'S. 129 

and however great the savings effected by the 
new administrators may be — and in some in- 
stances, as in the post-office and the customs 
administrations, they have been considerable — 
they will profit the Khedive or his creditors but 
little, if they are swallowed up in the expenses of 
the machinery employed in their production. 

Sitting at Shepheard's table d'hote one day, I 
saw six of these new employes side by side, whose 
collective salaries amounted to more than =£20,000 
per annum, and but four out of the six held high 
positions : the other two being merely clerks in 
departments. Many of these gentlemen, doubt- 
less very capable at home, verify the truth of 
Lord Bacon's axiom, that " he that goeth abroad 
without understanding the language goeth to 
school, and not to travel." For how people, to 
whom the old records and papers relating to new 
transactions, are literally " sealed books," being 
in Arabic, can possibly either comprehend, Eiudit, 
or check accounts, I confess puzzles me ; for the 
interpreter — again to cite Lord Bacon — "having 
his hand full, truth may choose but to open his 
little finger." This fact accounts for much of 
the confusion in Egyptian accounts. 

These comments are made in no invidious or 
hostile spirit towards the new employe's, most 
of whom. I do not know, and several who are 
known personally to me inspiring me with most 



130 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

friendly feelings,, But the truth, should be told ; 
and when outcries against the Khedive's expen- 
sive administration of public affairs are so loudly 
made, it is but just that some of the leaks should 
be shown to proceed from other causes than 
his own personal extravagancies. The ordinary 
Egyptian official, whether foreign or native, has 
hitherto been so insufficiently and irregularly 
paid, that this contrast seems all the more 
striking ; and hence I have placed my finger 
as gently as I could upon this very tender 
spot.* 

Several of the gentlemen personally interested, 
with a candour that did them honour, frankly 
admitted to me the justice of the complaint in 
this regard made by the old employes; but 
naturally were not quixotic enough to propose 
a reduction in the emoluments, with which 
they had been so liberally endowed by the 
Egyptian Government, out of its almost empty 
chests. 

One of the greatest difficulties in the trans- 
action of bureau or official business of any kind 
is the immense number of holidays claimed, and 
granted to employes in all the Government 
bureaux, which exasperate and annoy all foreign 
officials, and retard the progress of business : but 
which, owing to the number of fasts and feasts 

* See Appendix C. 



k 



EGYPTIAN FASTS AND FEASTS. 131 

in the Mohammedan calendar, it seems im- 
possible to diminish. 

The fasts and feasts and holidays of the 
Greek, Latin., and Coptic rayahs (or native 
Christians) are fully as numerous and as 
punctiliously observed as those of the Mussul- 
men; and the accountants and subordinate 
employes in the different divans are taken 
largely frorn this class — there being really no 
Turks in Egypt, and the native Egyptians not 
being over fond of clerical or office duties. 
The latter however act as the heads of divans, 
with the intention of doing everything by proxy, 
and as little as possible personally. Thus, with 
both head and hands equally willing to be idle, 
this irritating interposition of newly arrived and 
zealous strangers can effect but little. 

During these holiday times the Government 
officers and officials do no manner of work that 
is not absolutely essential, and the recurrence of 
these vacations is vexatious to the European 
heads of bureaux, who see at least two months 
in every year lost through them ; not including 
the thirty days' fast of Eamazan, when all 
Mussulman Egypt is awake all night, and asleep, 
or half asleep, all day — making three. This is 
one of the ingrained old customs, which even 
Khedive Ismail, absolute as he is supposed to be, 
has contended against in vain ; striving to limit 



132 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

and reduce these very liberal vacations so con- 
stantly recurring. But' custom, which in the 
East is stronger, not only than law, but even 
than kings, will not be changed ; and Egyptian 
employes, who benefit by these leisure days, 
from high to low, stickle for their perpetuation, 
and evade — when they do not dare openly to 
disobey — higher orders to the contrary. 

Against any active opposition the Khedive's 
fiat is omnipotent ; but against old customs, 
prejudices, and habits, stronger than any written 
law and more religiously followed, even his 
energy and efforts strike as vainly as a cannon 
ball directed against a floating silk banner, whose 
non-resistance is the secret of its remaining 
unimpressed by the force directed against it. 

Time, education, and improvement may finally 
counteract the causes enumerated; but it will 
require the united efforts of the three to make 
Egypt like unto Europe. 

Let us then give both the Khedive, and his 
new assistants from abroad, the benefit of good 
intentions and well-directed efforts ; even though 
the progress actually made, in the way of 
practical and perceptible reform in the different 
administrations, does not seem very perceptible 
as yet, and though the performance falls very far 
short of the swelling programme : put forth in 
the hope of regaining the lost confidence of 



PROGRAMME AND PERFORMANCE. 133 

Europe, both as to trie Khedive's promises of 

reform, and his promise to pay. The first steps 

in the right direction have been taken, and, with 

patience, the goal may be reached at last. 

G 



134 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 



CHAPTEE IX. 

HELOUAN. 

An Aix les Bains in the desert — What and where is Helouan ? — On 
the road to it — The grand boulevard to the citadel — Glimpses 
of interiors en route — The Mokattam Hills— Their quarries — 
Through the desert, in view of the Pyramids — Appearance of Helouan 
— Its sights and smells — The sulphur baths — The hotel — The view 
from its roof — An enthusiastic collector of antiques. 

Sitting on Shepheard's balcony at Cairo, one 
soft spring morning this year, the idea struck 
us to visit the sulphur springs and baths of 
Helouan : one of the modern improvements 
undertaken and carried out by the Khedive, at 
his own expense, for the benefit of all native and 
foreign sufferers from rheumatic or kindred 
maladies. The existence of hot sulphur springs 
at Helouan, about fourteen miles from Cairo, had 
been known a long time ; but the merit of 
utilizing them, and creating a species of Aix les 
Bains in the desert, is due to Ismail Pacha : 
who not only established baths there of a most 



ATX LES BAINS IN THE DESERT. 135 

substantial description, but caused a fine spacious 
hotel to be constructed as well, placed a German 
manager and doctor in charge of it, and en- 
couraged the creation of a little village in the 
vicinity, presenting building lots to all persons 
who would erect upon them dwelling-houses 
of an inexpensive description. He also caused 
to be built a palace for his mother, by way of 
example, and the little bathing-place has become 
quite the fashion already. So much so that 
visitors from Cairo have often to wait a week or 
two, to secure accommodation at the hotel 
during the winter season. When the great heats 
come on, I believe the hotel is closed, though 
the owners of the houses at Helouan pass the 
entire summer there ; the dry air of the desert 
suiting some constitutions, and the nights being 
always endurable, from the winds which ever 
sweep across the empty waste of desert sand 
which surrounds the springs, which form an oasis 
in the solitude. 

Since the opening of a railway line to 
Helouan, access to it is easy, several times daily; 
but until very recently the only way of reaching 
it was by donkey or by carriage, both of which 
modes of conveyance were slow and tedious, in 
consequence of the heavy sand over which the 
route lay. Now it is only a matter of an hour 
from the station, which is immediately below the 



136 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

citadel — that sleepless watchman over the city 
which lies nestling at its feet; and wherein 
grim old Mehemet Ali enacted that stern 
tragedy, which removed at once and for ever 
from his path the only stumbling-block to his 
direct march to the throne of Egypt, by the 
massacre of the Mamelukes. The spot where 
the last survivor of that savage soldiery, dying 
like wolves caught in a trap, leaped his horse 
over the wall, and rose , living from the dead 
body of his steed, to be pardoned subsequently 
by Mehemet Ali,. is still shown the stranger ; 
and very near that historic site you see the 
small railway station, which speaks eloquently 
of the change that has passed over Egypt during 
that interval — the reign of slaughter and 
treachery having been succeeded by the more 
peaceful progress of civilizing agencies, the 
cannon by the railway. 

Butf let us start from the hotel, either on one 
of the knock-kneed little donkeys, which still 
swarm around Shepheard's steps as of old, and 
make both day and night vocal with the "long 
dry seesaw of their horrible bray;" or in one 
of the street carriages, since all the European 
capitals seem recently to have spawned their 
most rickety and disabled vehicles on the " city 
of victory," drawn by animals modelled on Don 
Quixottes' Eosinante, whose blood may be 



THE CITADEL BOULEVARD. 137 

dubious, but whose bones are irrepressible and 
stare you in the face. 

Often, looking on these, the real "lean kine " 
of modern Egypt, is the traveller reminded of 
that remarkable animal described by Mr. Weller, 
which when put in stiff shafts and driven down- 
hill went admirably, because too weak to stop. 
Mounting one of these dilapidated vehicles, our 
party of four (of whom two were ladies) drove 
along the Ezbekieh Gardens — which French 
taste has now enclosed, clipped, pruned, and 
trimmed into the likeness of a miniature Bois 
de Boulogne — down through the Mooskie (both 
of which have already been described), until we 
reached the road to the citadel. 

Formerly the route to the citadel was one 
of the most winding and tortuous in all Cairo, 
corkscrewing through the bazaars and the 
narrow streets leading out of the Mooskie, or 
quarter of European shops, and compelling a 
detour as picturesque as it was provoking to 
people pressed for time. But the spirit of 
Haussmann has seemingly descended on the 
Khedive, who, possessing the power as well 
as the inclination, has on a smaller scale 
followed in the footsteps of the French leveller. 
For not only here, but in other quarters of the 
old city, broad open boulevards, as wide as the 
French, have been cut straight through the old 



13S THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT 

houses, with a most ruthless disregard for the 
prejudices or the prayers of the old house- 
holders, who loathe light, air, and sunshine, as 
well as publicity, as much as they do "plague, 
pestilence, and famine ; " even although in- 
demnity is given or promised them for all 
demolition or damage to their premises. Nor 
are they entirely without reasonable excuse for 
grumbling at this arbitrary and compulsory 
change in their " ancient ways," narrow, damp, 
dirty, and gloomy as they seemed to the 
stranger. For here, where the sun gives more 
than enough of heat and glare from his rise to 
his setting, shade and coolness, alone attainable 
in narrow streets with but a small slit of sky 
visible between the projecting housetops above, 
are the chief wants of the residents, and it is 
questionable whether what is a real improve- 
ment at Paris, may ultimatelv Drove so at Grand 
Cairo. 

Already, waiving the practical features of the 
matter, the sentimental traveller has broken 
into objurgations on the modern Pharaoh, who 
has hardened his heart against the picturesque, 
and ruthlessly torn down the crumbling old mud 
houses, with their latticed wooden windows, 
through which peered the bright eyes of 
Egyptian Fatimas and Zuleikas — " making a 
hideous modern boulevard out of these once 



VIEWS OF INTERIORS EN EOUTE. 139 

Oriental streets, where one might admire the 
few remaining specimens of Saracenic architec- 
ture ! " as one of the latest pilgrims pathetically 
remarks. 

But unluckily the " specimens " referred to 
never were " Saracenic," nor at all resembling 
it, but purely Arabic, and barbarous Arabic at 
best ; and so much more of the same style still 
is left in Cairo, that a little more of it might 
still be spared to the ruthless hammer of im- 
provement. 

The broad open road, leading in a straight 
line to the massive pile of citadel buildings 
which crown the hill, back of which towers 
the frowning and rugged chain of the Mokattam 
Hills, on the desert edge, is finished and in 
tolerably good condition. But with the usual 
careless way of doing things in the East, the 
demolitions on each side of the roadway have 
been but partially completed, or never repaired, 
in most cases, by the erection of new outer 
walls. So you pass through what looks like a 
city that has recently been shelled — houses in 
all stages of dilapidation, though still inhabited, 
giving most odd views of domestic interiors, 
frowning down upon you ; while not even a 
screen, much less a wall, has been placed 
between the dilapidation and the street. 

As the plan of most of these old houses seems 



140 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

to have been modelled on that of a rabbit 
warren, from the multiplicity and perplexity of 
burrowing-places in them, this unveiling of the 
interiors, originally designed to be so private, 
gives odd glimpses into the inner life of the 
Cairenes; whose ideas of comfort puzzle us as 
badly as those of the disinterred Pompeians, 
judging from their homes. 

We left the railway station at mid- day, and 
almost immediately found ourselves on the 
desert, though not a desert of billowy sand (as 
fancy ever pictures a desert to be), but one of 
hard gritty soil, on which however neither 
grass, shrub, nor tree was growing. On our right 
hand as we proceeded was a distant view of the 
Nile, and of the Pyramids ; on the left towered 
up, apparently not half a mile distant, the rugged 
masses of the Mokattain Hills — huge quarries 
of stone, from whose embowelled entrails had 
already been drawn much of the building material 
of Cairo, and from which new drains were now 
being made afresh, to gratify the Khedive's con- 
structive propensities. For, as he frankly said to 
the writer of these sketches but two years ago, 
" All men have their manias ; mine is in stone " 
— " Tai une manie en jpierre" to use his own 
words ; for he converses in French, not in 
English, not understanding the latter language. 

We could see the square openings in the hill- 



THE MOKATTAM HILLS AND THE DESERT. 141 

sides made for the excavations, presenting the 
appearance of caverns for the habitations of 
hermits, such as yon see scooped out of the hill- 
sides in Palestine, near the rock convent of 
Marssaba, not far from the Jordan and the Dead 
Sea ; and this impression is heightened by the 
desolation of the surrounding landscape, where 
you see neither bird, nor beast, nor form of man, 
his habitations or his works, for mile after mile. 
Sometimes the sharp silhouettes of a long line 
of laden camels are defined against the hills or 
the horizon ; the gaunt weird outlines of these 
ungainly animals, led by the Arab driver en- 
veloped in his grey abba, or cloak, with striped 
silken bornous on his head, giving a pictorial 
look to the desolate and dreary scene. For even 
the vulture seems unable to pick up a living on 
these wastes, and does not hover over them. 
The camels and the ungainly oxen enjoy the 
monopoly ; and they are employed in the labour 
of hauling the stone from the quarries. 

Over this waste of wilderness beats down the 
fierce flaming sun of Egypt, flooding earth, air, 
and sky with a golden glare, almost intolerable 
to the eye, unrelieved by glimpse of verdure or 
of water, except at very rare intervals, where 
a little strip of green may be seen bordering a 
well or fountain on the route ; and sometimes 

you catch glimpses of the silvery and flashing 

G2 . 



142 THE KHEDIVES EGYPT. 

current of the Nile, with the fringe of verdure 
on its banks ; while, pointing heavenwards with 
their sharp cones, the eternal Pyramids loom up 
ever in the distance, with nothing to obstruct 
the view of their towering proportions. 

But the glare, the heat, and the dust became 
so overpowering, after half an hour of this mid- 
day ride through the desert, that we were com- 
pelled perforce to shut out the view, which was 
becoming monotonous, by closing the curtains 
of our railway carriage; and creating smoke- 
clouds by puffing cigarettes of genuine Stambouli 
or Turkish tobacco, the soothing effect of which 
we soon experienced. 

The transit from the station at Cairo to the 
station at Helouan occupies about an hour. 
Shortly before reaching the latter, we opened 
the windows and curtains of our carriage, to let 
out the smoke, and take another view of the 
surrounding scenery. On our left hand now it 
was all desert, unrelieved by the hills which we 
had left far behind. On the right still loomed 
up the Pyra'misp but Father Nile had become 
invisible. In front we saw a long, low, irregular 
pile of buildings of considerable extent, enclosed 
in high walls which might conceal gardens. 
This, we were told, was the palace of the 
Khedive's mother, to which she occasionally 
came ; and at long intervals the great man 



ARRIVAL AT HELOUAN. 143 

hirnself honoured Helouan with his presence; 
when his courtiers thronged there after him, 
and gave life and animation to that ordinarily 
quiet place, whose hotel and scattered houses we 
could now discern and were rapidly approaching. 
The station is not more than 100 yards from the 
hotel, yet so averse are people here, both native 
and foreign, to pedestrian feats that an omnibus 
was in readiness to convey us that short distance. 
Eesenting the imputation conveyed on our 
energy and activity by such a proffer, we declined 
the accommodation ; and strolled leisurely along 
over the desert sand towards the town and hotel, 
the latter of which presented quite an imposing 
appearance, contrasted with the small houses 
scattered around it, most of which appeared 
to have been rapidly run up on the Aladdin 
plan, in a single night, to present a proper 
appearance of a town to the visitor. An over- 
powering atmosphere of newness pervaded 
everything, which in this country of ruins and 
recollections seemed strangely incongruous. 
Sarah's unexpected and unhoped-for child 
hardly appeared more exceptional, than a brand- 
new and growing village, on the modern plan, 
seems to the traveller in old Egypt. Yet here 
was one the youthful appearance of which 
might have done honour to an American 
backwoods settlement, six months after the 



144 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

first tree had. been cut down by the earliest 
pioneers from "the coast," except that there 
never having been any trees here, there could 
be of necessity no " stumps," the characteristic 
feature of the new settlement in America. For 
whereas the American pioneer regards the 
tree as his natural enemy, to be removed as 
a nuisance ; here the first care is to set out a 
young plantation for shade and as a screen from 
dust ; and around each house at Helouan the 
occupant had carefully set out such trees as 
could be procured in this treeless country, whose 
greatest want is the want of wood. Dickens, in 
his "American Notes," records the astonishment 
with which he beheld a baby in one of the 
Western cities, which seemed too newly built 
to have afforded time for a baby to be born; 
and we were reminded of his astonishment here, 
on seeing a woman with a baby in her arms, 
which really looked older than the town — if by 
courtesy we may designate by that title the 
fifteen or twenty buildings which constitute 
" Helouan les Bains," as the large placards 
posted up all over Cairo somewhat pompously 
denominate it. 

So rapid, however, is the growth of vegetation 
under the Egyptian sun — even on the desert 
sands wherever water can be supplied — that 
already several of the houses were gracefully 



AT HELOUAN LES BAINS. 145 

decorated with climbing creepers even to the 
roof, and the gardens were already blooming 
with tropical flowers and grass, giving the place 
the aspect of an oasis in the desert; for all 
around it, far as the eye can reach, is flat sandy 
plain, unrelieved even by a hillock — the horizon 
bounding it on all sides as in a sea view, and 
the setting sun dipping as suddenly as he does 
over the waste of waters when seen from ship- 
board. We proceeded to the hotel, which the 
Khedive caused to be erected about a year ago, 
when he decreed the creation of Helouan les 
Bains, then alone possessing the bubbling hot 
sulphur springs, which long had trickled un- 
noticed over the sands, whose curative virtues 
the Khedive appreciated as soon as they were 
explained to him, and thus sought to utilize, 
as an additional attraction to the foreign 
visitors, who annually contribute so much to 
the life of Cairo and the pockets of its landlords 
and shopkeepers, foreign and native. 

The hotel is a large square building, with an 
open court in the centre filled with flowers and 
shrubs, two stories high, with verandahs ranning 
all around the inner square, where one can 
take air and exercise during the mid-day, when 
outdoor exercise would be impossible or danger- 
ous. By a winding stairway you ascend to the 
roof, which, as usual in the East is flat, with 



146 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

a parapet four feet high running all around it, 
so as to make it a most pleasant lounging-place 
when the sun has set, and until midnight under 
these clear, bright, and starry skies. 

The rooms are all so large and airy that the 
hotel cannot accommodate comfortably nearly 
so many persons as its apparent size would 
indicate: I believe not more than fifty at a time. 

Its present manager is really " a host in him- 
self," being a Greek formerly engaged in mer- 
cantile pursuits, which he has renounced for an 
enthusiastic love of antiquities, to the collection 
of which he devotes all his spare time, and 
Egyptian coins of modern stamp. His collection 
is already a large and excellent one, and every 
day adds to its extent and value ; for the central 
position of Helouan between the two families 
of Pyramids, those of Gizeh and Sakkhara, and 
the long summer vacation, when there are no 
travelling Howadji or foreign collectors to snap 
up the " unconsidered trifles " which the fellah 
or Bedouin picks up in the ruins or tarns up 
with his ploughshare, give the collector on the 
spot immense advantages, both as to the choice 
and price of antiques. 

The amiable enthusiast who manages the hotel 
and baths of Helouan makes the most of these 
advantages, and is never wearied with exhibiting 
his treasures to his guests, and explaining their 



AN AMIABLE ENTHUSIAST. 147 

former uses or meaning ; thus rendering a resi- 
dence under his roof as instructive as it is 
agreeable. 

Add to this pleasant host, whose good temper 
is inexhaustible, the attractions of an excellent 
cuisine, and a select society of all nationalities 
and all tongues, as well as the facilities for 
making numerous excursions on donkeys to 
the two sets of Pyramids and different interest- 
ing localities in the desert, with the sulphur 
baths in addition, and it is easy to understand 
why many persons, who are not invalids, desert 
the comparative city life of Cairo, for the repose 
and fresh air of the desert. 

After resting an hour in the cool shady 
reading-room, well supplied with newspapers and 
magazines in English, French, and German, 
and divans and easy-chairs of all descriptions, 
we sallied forth to see the baths, under the 
guidance of one of the many medical men found 
at Helouan. For really the place seems to 
have attracted the medical faculty as much as 
the invalids : several of the profession, German, 
French, and American, having at least tempo- 
rary residences here ; although the hotel and 
baths have their regular medical man, attached 
to the establishment and salaried by the 
Khedive, to whom the whole thing as yet is 
a charge, or has been until this, the second 
season. 



148 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

The bathing establishment is replete with 
every comfort — large rooms with white marble 
baths for ordinary bathers, furnished with divans 
covered with chintz, on which to repose after 
being steamed and sulphurized ; with the inevit- 
able Eastern accompaniment of coffee and 
chibouques. A separate set of bathing rooms, 
with a private entrance, has been prepared and 
reserved for the sole and separate use of the 
Khedive and his family; and these are fitted 
up and furnished with satin damask hangings, 
and divans covered with the same rich material. 
The bathing-places also are more richly and 
expensively arranged than those for the use of 
the public, and exclusively devoted to royal use ; 
strangers being only shown through them as 
one of the sights of the place. From the 
moment you enter the door until you leave 
the building, which is a very solid and sub- 
stantial one, the penetrating odour of sulphur 
assails your nostrils with a pungency that is 
almost overpowering ; and you carry that most 
uncelestial odour away with you, and about your 
person, for a considerable time after leaving the 
baths. We did not bathe, but the doctor 
turned one of the spouts, and the water which 
poured into the bath-tub was hot and sulphurous 
enough to have bubbled up direct from Plutonian 
fountains close at hand, for a special bath for 
Queen Proserpina. 



THE HOT SULPHUE BATHS. 149 

Several of our friends who essayed the experi- 
ment of the virtues of these baths for rheumatic, 
and other similar ailments, experienced great 
benefit from the treatment ; while the purity of 
the air, blowing freshly over the desert, is most 
unquestionable. 

The chief drawbacks to thorough enjoyment 
arise from the heat and glare, which confine 
most persons to the house from 10 a.m. to 
6 p.m. ; but the early morning, the evening, and 
the night are truly delicious, and make amends 
for the temporary imprisonment during the 
heated term. 

If one could be pardoned the use of a "bull," 
however, in all Eastern travel or residence, save 
in mid-winter, the night is always the best part 
of the day, whether in a dahabeah on the Nile, in 
the city, or on the desert ; for an Eastern night, 
with its large and lustrous stars dispensing 
almost the light of day, though softer and more 
subdued than the garish daylight, with its soft, 
soothing, and balmy breezes, surpasses far the 
most delightful spring day in less favoured 
crimes : and is the best time for exercise, enjoy- 
ment, and musing. Lord Lytton's German 
mystic, who lived in an imaginary life of his own 
creation in dreamland, while his actual daily 
life was to him as a dream, should have come to 
Helouan to enjoy uninterruptedly that existence ; 



150 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

since no spot in the world offers finer facilities 
for it. 

A short distance from the building there is 
quite a large pond — used for bathing also — 
of fresh water, supplied from the Nile, about a 
mile distant but not perceptible from the spot 
on which we stood below. This pond is much 
resorted to by the small population in and 
around Helouan, in the evenings and nights of 
summer or spring ; so that sulphur or fresh-water 
baths are equally accessible to the sojourners 
here. 

But it is worth coming to Helouan to get the 
view from the housetop at sunset, as we did, for 
it is unique of its kind, and unlike any other in 
the wide wide world. Ascending to the flat 
roof by a spiral stairway of iron, you stand upon 
the housetop, surrounded by a stone parapet 
about four feet in height, and look around you. 

On every side there meets the eye the grim 
grey desert, stretching away into the distance — 
a shrubless sea of sand, bounded only by the 
horizon. In the distance the slight undulations, 
which alone break the dead level of its surface 
over which flows a thin vapoury mist of exhala- 
tions from the heat, resemble the billows of 
the sea ; but the restless movement of the waves 
is wanting here, and the illusion is soon dis- 
pelled as the spectator still gazes over this sad 



VIEW FROM THE HOUSE-TOPS. 151 

scene, , enlivened by the presence of no living 
thing. Earth and air seem as tenantless as 
though creation's dawn had not broken, and the 
Creator's fiat had not yet peopled the world. 

You turn and look in the opposite direction — 
and piercing the clear atmosphere with sharp 
distinctness of outline, you behold at once the 
sister Pyramids of Gizeh and of Sakkhara, both 
visible from this point, and seemingly very near; 
but if you mount your donkey, or plough through 
the sand to reach either of them, you soon 
find they are further off than they seem to be 
through the medium of this clear atmosphere, 
which is most deceptive. This is, in my judg- 
ment, by far the finest view of the Pyramids 
from a distance, taking in as you do at one coup 
d'ceil these rival monuments of man's folly; for 
whether they are to be considered as royal mau- 
soleums or, as later theorizers have pronounced 
them, astrological erections, equally must they 
be regarded as huge monuments of human folly, 
in such a waste of labour, life, and wealth as 
their erection must have entailed. 

Straining the eye, you see a silver thread with 
what seems a fringe of vegetation around it, and 
after a time you catch a glimpse of the Nile ; 
which is visible from where you stand, distant, I 
was told, two miles. But there must be some 
undulation on that side, for it was not very 
plainly perceptible. 



152 



THE KEEDIVE S EGYPT. 



This was all that was to be seen, and 
such, a view might appear, from this most in- 
adequate description, not to repay the trouble 
of seeking it. But what gives it so bizarre and 
peculiar a character is in fact indescribable ; for 
it consists chiefly in the absence of what meets 
the eye in all other landscapes ; for here, with 
the fiery globe of the sun rushing redly down to 
his rest, a globe of fire dipping down as though 
into the sea, the old Scriptural malediction on 
Palestine comes back vividly to the mind: " Thy 
sky shall be as brass, and thy land shall be as 
iron" — for of brass and iron seem both to be 
composed at this place and hour. 

When we reached Shepheard's Hotel on our 
return from Helouan, it seemed to us that we 
could fully appreciate the feelings of the wan- 
derers in the wilderness on reaching Canaan. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE KHEDIVE ISMAIL AS A PUBLIC AND A PEIVATE 

MAN. 

His lucky star — The accident that made him Khedive — Achmet 
Pacha's closing scene — His character — A fatal fete and lucky illness 
— Halim Pacha's peril and escape — What might have been but for 
an open drawbridge — My early impressions of Prince Ismail — His 
love for "Naboth's vineyard" — The man and the monarch, briefly 
epitomized — Things he has done and things he has left undone — ■ 
His building mania. 

The Egyptians, like all other Orientals, are very- 
superstitious, believing strongly in luck — that 
there are people born lucky and unlucky : apart 
from their kismet or destiny, which they think 
binds every mortal man in its iron chain from 
birth to death, beyond his power of will or of 
resistance. Thus the last king of the Moors in 
Spain, Boabdil, during whose reign they were 
expelled from that fair and beloved land, was 
commonly called El Zogoybi, "the Unlucky," 
and verified the appellation. 

So, until his late troubles and failures, Ismail 
Pacha was regarded by his subjects as the most 



154 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

lucky of human beings : and the earlier stages 
of his career seemed to justify the common 
belief. Even his occupation of the throne 
was due to an accident, fatal to another, but 
fortunate for him. Between him and the suc- 
cession, after the death of Said should have 
made a vacancy, there was another life — that of 
his brother Achmet, a man but little older than 
himself, of powerful constitution and regular 
habits. Achmet was the eldest son of Ibrahim 
Pacha, and the succession was his of right, under 
the rule that then existed, but has since been 
changed to the direct line from father to son. 

Early in the year 1858, Said Pacha, then 
viceroy, gave a great fete at Alexandria, to 
which he sent invitations for all the members of 
his family, including the sons of Ibrahim and 
others residing at Cairo. Such an invitation 
was equal to a command; so all accepted and 
came, except Ismail, who making illness his 
excuse, did not accompany them. They attended 
the fete ; and the princely party, at the head of 
which were Achmet and Halim, a younger and 
favourite brother of Sa'id, were assigned a special 
train to convey them back to Cairo, when the 
festivities were over. Their retinue was com- 
posed of twenty or thirty friends and attendants. 
Midway between _the two cities the line of rai] 
passes over the Nile, at Kaffir Azzayat, where 



i 

HALIM PACHA'S PEEIL AND ESCAPE. 155 

there is a famous bridge, built by Robert 
Stephenson, with a drawbridge that opens and 
shuts, to permit the passage of steamers or 
other craft. As the train bearing its royal 
freight came thundering down the slope that 
leads on to this bridge, the English engineer 
who drove it saw to his horror that the draw- 
bridge was open, leaving a yawning space over 
the deep and raging flood, full fifty feet below 
— but saw the danger too late to avoid it. 

The carriages, with the princes and their 
train, were precipitated into the river, Prince 
Hahm alone escaping through his superior ac- 
tivity and presence of mind; for while the 
carriages hung suspended for an instant over the 
flood, he forced the door open, called to his 
nephew Achmet and the others to imitate him, 
and plunged headlong into the river, as the sole 
chance of escape from a dreadful death. Skilled 
in all athletic sports and manly exercises, 
Halim thus saved his life, swimming ashore as 
soon as he rose to the surface ; but Achmet, an 
awkward heavy man, did not follow his lead, 
but was drowned with his companions, leaving 
the succession clear for his brother Ismail, who 
doubtless recognized "his star" in the whole 
affair, as well as in his preservation from a 
similar fate to that of his elder brother. There 
was not wanting slanderous tongues at the time 



156 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

to hint at the viceroy's complicity in this 
dreadful casualty ; and he himself bitterly com- 
plained to me that he doubted not such would be 
the case, at the same time exclaiming, in the 
spirit and almost in the words of Scripture, " Is 
thy servant a dog to have done this thing ? " and 
adding that his hope was that the presence of 
his favourite brother there might screen him 
from so unworthy a suspicion. Prom my know- 
ledge of his character, as well as from inquiries 
made on the spot subsequently, I am convinced 
that he was innocent of all complicity in the 
transaction ; which was the result of carelessness 
— some might say of fatality. It is curious to 
contemplate the very different state of things 
that might be existing in Egypt to-day, had the 
succession not been changed by this casualty, 
and Achmet succeeded instead of Ismail. For 
Achmet was by nature and habit one of the 
most prudent and conservative of human beings 
— the exact reverse of a prodigal ; in fact, accused 
of avarice and inordinate love of money; ad- 
dicted not to spending but to hoarding, and in 
character and temper exactly the reverse of his 
brother, known to us as the Khedive, who how- 
ever rapidly he has contrived to fill his hands, 
has managed ever to empty them quicker still. 
So far did Prince Achmet carry his economies, 
that he often received his foreign friends, who 



CHARACTER OF PRINCE ACHMET. 157 

called at his palace in the evening after dark, 
by the light of no chandelier or lustres at- 
tached to the walls, but in a chamber illumi- 
nated by the ordinary " fanous" or glass lantern 
with two candles, borne by respectable citizens 
in traversing the streets by night, before patrols 
were instituted at Cairo. He would have 
economized the public funds, as he did his 
private fortune, which was very large ; but 
Egypt would have stood still, not advanced, 
under his reign. 

Yet, in justice to him, it should be added that 
he also possessed some truly princely traits' to 
neutralise this weakness. He was a man of 
honour and of courage, most truthful and reliable 
in all he said and did, devoted to agriculture, 
and incapable of cruelty or dishonesty. But he 
was better fitted for a private station than a 
throne : and had he lived and reigned, most 
probably the Suez Canal, and the other great 
public works which will hereafter record the 
enterprise of the Khedive Ismail, long after his 
loans and the Egyptian debt have been for- 
gotten, would never have been Egypt's dowry 
in her bridal with Europe. 

Heir presumptive through this casualty, 

Ismail now bided his time, devoting himself to 

agricultural pursuits, shunning publicity through 

fear of inspiring Said's jealousy, and acquiring 

H 



158 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

real estate — one of Ms passions — until he became 
perhaps the largest landed proprietor in Egypt. 
In addition to his own large hereditary proper- 
ties, he has absorbed those of his brothers and 
cousins ; and several of the loans which now 
figure in Mr. Cave's report, were contracted for 
such purchases before or since his accession to 
the throne. 

During that period I used to visit the prince 
at his palace at Cairo, and found him a most 
polished and courteous gentleman, fond of con- 
versing on his European experiences of travel, in 
Erench, which he spoke with perfect ease and 
fluency, and producing the impression that he 
was an amiable but not very able man. He 
certainly played Brutus well while his Caesar 
lived ; for even his intimates had no conception 
of the hidden energy and grasping- ambition 
which that smooth manner and guarded speech 
concealed. Said himself certainly had not formed 
a fair or a just estimate of his probable successor, 
whom he could not conciliate, but who kept aloof 
from the Court which that merry monarch 
assembled around him after the accident which 
opened the way for him, and which probably he 
regarded as a premeditated trap set for himself 
and kinsmen — a suspicion which his knowledge 
of Said's character should have dispelled. 

So anxious was Ismail to learn, and the cour- 



AN EGYPTIAN TEICK ON AN ENGLISH SUPERIOR. 159 

tiers to communicate, the tidings of the last 
breath drawn by the dying man whose waning 
shadow still rilled the almost vacant throne, that 
a high official, the head of the telegraph line 
(an Englishman), sat all night by the side of the 
telegraph operator, to send the news by lightning 
to the coming ruler, the moment life had left the 
body of the old one. 

But Said, with his powerful organization, died 
slowly, and taxed the patience of the watchers. 
So the high official, tired out at last after several 
sleepless nights, summoned a trusted native 
clerk in the office, whom he believed to be faithful 
and devoted to him personally, and charged Mm 
to come immediately to his house and awaken 
him, should the news come during his absence, 
promising him a handsome backsheesh for 
his services. He then went home to snatch a 
little sleep. But the astute clerk, knowing as 
well as his master the custom of the country, 
which conferred rank and gold to the first bearer 
of such tidings to a new viceroy, when the 
news did come, during his employer's slumbers, 
hastened to take it himself to Ismail, and 
received at once the anticipated promotion and 
reward. Then, with the' malicious cunning and 
avarice of his class, further to outwit the con- 
fiding Frank, he hurried away to awaken him 
and impart the news, without saying a word 



160 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

as to the use he had already made of it. Full of 
hope and joy, the official hastened to the palace 
of Ismail with the glad tidings ; hut, to his infinite 
astonishment and disgust, was contemptuously 
dismissed without reward as the hearer of stale 
tidings, and left to reflect on the perfidy of native 
clerks, and the necessity of keeping very wide- 
awake in Egypt. The perfidious clerk is now a 
pacha ; his "betrayed employer yet a hey. 

The accession of Ismail Pacha took place 
early in January, 1863, and the educational pro- 
gress during that period has heen truly remark- 
able, and would he so considered in any country 
of the globe. At the time of Mehemet Ali there 
were but 6000 children receiving public instruc- 
tion. During the first six years of the reign of 
the Khedive the number had increased to 60,000, 
a portion of the credit for which is due to Said 
Pacha, his predecessor. In 1873 the figure 
attained was almost 90,000, and at this time it 
doubtless exceeds 100,000. 

One of the greatest difficulties in educating 
this people has arisen from the peculiar social 
and domestic system prevailing in the country, 
which renders access to the female children 
(except those of the very poor, or fellahs) almost 
impossible. Thus, of the 90,000 pupils in the 
primary schools, but 3000 are girls — chiefly, if 
not entirely, the children of Christian parents, 



FIRST EASTERN SCHOOL FOR WOMEN. 161 

foreign and native. But the indefatigable Khe- 
dive has grappled with the difficulty. He has 
instituted at Cairo, on a liberal scale (in the 
name of one of his wives), the first school for 
women ever known in the Ottoman Empire : and 
various others also have since been established 
elsewhere in Egypt for female education. He 
has gone deeper, and established schools for the 
female children of the fellahs, or agricultural 
labourers, in the hope of elevating the social, 
moral, and intellectual condition of this large 
class of the labouring population, whose past 
and present lot has been far less pleasant and 
comfortable than that of the former Southern 
slave in the United States. Should these com- 
prehensive educational plans of the Khedive be 
carried out successfully, the next generation of 
Egyptians, male and female, will be an immense 
improvement on their predecessors, and be able 
to contrast favourably with the labouring classes 
of any country. But even under the most 
favourable auspices it will require a generation 
to effect this result, even in part ; for the Khe- 
dive has to build up the mass of his people from 
a very low level indeed : as all who know aught 
of the life and labours of the actual Egyptian 
fellah must acknowledge. Whether also educa- 
tion alone will suffice to correct imperfect 
moral and social home-training, and the absence, 



162 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

not only of the comforts, but even of the neces- 
saries and decencies of life, on the part of 
children born and living in such environments 
as those which surround the Egyptian fellah 
from infancy and accompany him through life, 
constitutes another problem, to be solved only 
by actual experience. The idea and the effort, 
however, are both noble ; and, whatever the 
result may be, posterity must do justice to the 
initiative of the absolute ruler capable of con- 
ceiving, and striving to execute so comprehensive 
a plan. 

In the year 1862, under Said Pacha's adminis- 
tration, the Government appropriation for public 
instruction amounted to less than £6000. In 
1872 the Khedive's Government appropriated 
£80,000 for the same object ; added to which, 
several private subventions, derived from the 
Khedive and his sons, were given to private, 
foreign, and native schools. 

It is estimated that the number of native boys 
old enough to attend school is about 350,000, 
and that the proportion actually receiving in- 
struction is about twenty-three per cent. ; while 
in Turkey it is about ten per cent., and in 
Eussia but three ; and even in Italy it is 
but thirty-one. The comparative civilization in 
Turkey and Egypt, tried by this test, may be 
judged of from these figures, and the distance 



A MERCHANT PKINCE. 163 

between them must widen with, each successive 
year. Besides the schools already mentioned, 
the Khedive has established special ones for his 
army, now about 30,000 men, and every soldier 
now is educated, and well educated, too — pri- 
vates as well as officers. The American officers 
declare that the aptitude of the Arab in acquir- 
ing knowledge, especially in mathematical and 
military science, is exceptional. It must be 
an hereditary transmission, since we owe our 
algebra to Arabia in the first instance. Unlike 
the negro race, the Arab seems susceptible of 
the highest culture ; and opportunity has de- 
veloped remarkable ability in many Egyptians 
during the present reign. 

The Khedive is entitled to the denomination 
of merchant prince more than any one who ever 
bore that title, combining the two characters 
profitably for a long time ; but attempting to 
add to it also that of a financier, he wrecked 
himself, and has come very near wrecking the 
country too. At once the great producer and 
exporter from Egypt of its most valuable agri- 
cultural products, with a virtual monopoly in 
the transit, by forestalling the market and fixing 
prices he was able to regulate production, price, 
and transportation, and reduce a monopoly into 
a mathematical certainty, without the possibility 
of rivalry. He enjoyed also the privilege of 



164 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

commanding labour at his own or no price, by 
corvee — practised habitually in Egypt, and but 
recently restrained with fixed limits, but existing 
still for all public works, and the Khedive's pri- 
vate property, too, unless he is greatly slandered, 
and common report prove a common liar. But 
this is a subject which will be more fully entered 
into in connection with the land tenure, and the 
actual condition of the fellah. For the present, 
let us consider the personal characteristics of 
the man who, almost idolized in Europe but 
three years ago, is now proving the fickleness of 
public opinion in his own person, by seeing the 
reverse of the medal. 

Ismail Khedive is a man of about forty-eight 
years of age, under the middle height, but 
heavily and squarely built, with broad shoulders 
which during the last year seem to have become 
bowed down by the heavy burdens imposed upon 
him, under which he has so manfully struggled. 
His face is round, covered by a dark brown 
beard, closely clipped, and short moustache of 
the same colour, shading a firm but sensual 
mouth. His complexion is dark; his features 
regular, heavy rather than mobile in expression. 
His eyes, which he keeps habitually half closed, 
in Turkish fashion, sometimes closing one 
entirely, are dark and usually dull, but very 
penetrating and bright at times, when he shoots 



THE KHEDIVE'S CHARACTERISTICS. 165 

a sudden sharp glance, like a flash, at his interlo- 
cutor. His face is usually as expressionless as 
that of the Sphinx, or the late Napoleon III., of 
whom, in my intercourse with the Khedive, I 
have been frequently reminded; for they are men 
much of the same stamp in character and intel- 
lect, with the same strong and the same weak 
characteristics doing constant battle with each 
other. The Khedive's voice is very character- 
istic — low, somewhat thick yet emphatic, well- 
modulated, giving meaning to the most common- 
place utterances; his words accompanied by a 
smile of much attractiveness when he seeks to 
please, and his mind is at ease. But under the 
mask of apparent apathy or serenity, the close 
observer will remark, that the lines across the 
broad brow and about the strong mouth indicate 
strong passions as strongly suppressed, and the 
cares of empire intruding ever on lighter 
thoughts : and judge the Khedive to be far from 
a happy man. 

Of his personal amiability of temper his atten- 
dants and old employes speak highly — another 
Napoleon trait ; and this natural humanity is 
indicated by the cessation of severe punishments, 
such as banishment, confiscation, and capital 
punishment, during his reign, — with one remark- 
able exception, which has produced abroad the 

opposite impression , and made one blot on what 

H2 



166 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

would otherwise have been a stainless record. 
During his visit abroad, in the year of the Great 
Exposition at Paris, Ismail was quite a lion, and 
excited the jealousy of his suzerain, the Sultan, 
by the warmth of his reception, in partibus infi- 
delium, both by the members of the European 
cabinets and crowned heads. 

One of the most curious episodes of this visit 
— in which he was accompanied by his adroit and 
able Minister of Eoreign Affairs, JNTubar Pacha, 
whose reputation has long since been fully as 
European as Egyptian — was his reception of, 
and reply to, the deputation of the Anti-Slavery 
Societies of England and Erance ; in which the 
tables were adroitly turned on his philanthropic 
petitioners, by the skilful and perhaps truthful 
character ot the response, which covers the 
question both of the slave-trade and of domestic 
slavery in Egypt. 

This deputation presented an address to him, 
calling his attention to the White Nile slave-trade, 
of which Said Pacha had decreed the abolition. 
The address was signed by Joseph Cooper and 
A. Chamerovezow on behalf of the English com- 
mittee, and by E. Laboulaye and Augustin Cochin 
for the Erench. The deputation was introduced 
and presented to the viceroy by Nubar Pacha, 
his Minister of Eoreign Affairs, who acted as 
interpreter, and translated His Highness' reply, 



A CUTTING ANSWER. 167 

according to Oriental etiquette, though the 
prince spoke French as well and fluently as any 
man present. The reply of the viceroy was as 
follows — and it w 7 ould be difficult to find, even 
among the happiest responses of Talleyrand or 
his school, a more cutting, cool, and contempt- 
uous rejoinder, couched in language of apparent 
courtesy. Nubar Pacha, acting as the mouth- 
piece of the viceroy, said — 

" The Viceroy felt gratified to receive the 
deputation, and was much pleased this step had 
been taken, for he was most anxious to put 
down the slave-trade. He had adopted the 
strongest measures for that purpose. But 
although he could act against his oivn people, 
he ivas poioerless to do so against Europeans, 
luho were the chief delinquents. They carried 
on a trade in ivory; but this was a mere pre- 
text, their real article of merchandise being 
slaves, who were conveyed down the river in 
boats. If these boats had no flag, or sailed 
under Egyptian colours, they were liable to be 
overhauled, and if slaves were found on board, 
boat and cargo were confiscated and the traders 
punished. "Within the last six months he had 
caused to be shot a commandant and a colonel, 
who had disobeyed his orders and favoured the 
slave-traders. But the slave-trading boats gene- 
rally hoist European colours of some sort, 
because their owners are Europeans, and if any 
question respecting the cargo arises, the answer 
is, that the men are part of the crew, the women 
their wives or concubines, and the young persons 



168 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

their children. Tlie Egyptian authorities could 
not do anything under these circumstances, as 
they were debarred from the right of search. 
"Within the last thirty years European influence 
had transformed Egypt, and if he were free to 
act against European slave-traders the slave- 
trade would soon disappear. The European 
Powers should give him the necessary authority 
to exercise the right of search as regards boats 
sailing under European colours. 

" The extinction of slavery was another and 
distinct question. Slavery had existed in the 
country for 1283 years, and was mixed up with 
its religion. It was a horrible institution, and 
he desired to see it extinguished. But it was 
not to be done in a day. He considered that the 
civilization and progress of Egypt depended on 
its abolition : and were the slave-trade stopped, 
slavery would disappear in fifteen or twenty 
years, or very few traces of it would remain, 
because it would not be recruited from without. 
Of the actual slave population many would die 
in that time, many would be manumitted, and 
others adopted into families. 

" He held the opinion — contrary to the views 
of his visitors — that the slave-trade was the root 
of slavery in his country, and must be stopped 
before slavery could cease. The abolition of the 
British consulate at Khartoum had certainly 
enabled him to act more efficiently against the 
slave-traders, but the only effective mode of deal- 
ing with the traffic was to arm him with power 
to prevent Europeans from prosecuting it" 

His introduction of Western civilization into 
Egypt ; his Europeanising Cairo, the stronghold 



THE MAN AND THE MONARCH. 169 

of the vanishing Oriental type of city ; his great 
public works ; his greater educational plans ; his 
filling his administrations with Europeans, and 
placing them at the head of all the principal 
bureaux ; his remodelling his army under the 
auspices of skilled and trained army officers, 
invited from his Ultima Thule, America ; the 
broad religious toleration which has made Chris- 
tian churches more numerous than Moslem ones, 
in proportion to the relative populations of the 
two sects, including the Eastern Christians 
under his rule, to whom also he has given the 
right and imposed the duty of bearing arms in 
defence of the State (enrolling them in the army 
in defiance of their universal exclusion elsewhere 
throughout the Ottoman dominions) — all these 
things are notorious, and constitute his claim 
to the admiration of Christendom as a wise 
reformer, a light newly arisen in the East. 

But the financial embarrassments of Egypt 
have come up like a cloud to eclipse these 
glories, and he is now denounced in more un- 
measured terms than he was lauded before, 
and even his good deeds and good works 
doubted and denied. My task is neither "to 
bury Caesar" nor "to praise him." I propose 
simply to depict the man and the monarch as 
I have seen and known him, and to do justice 
at the same time to the ruler, and to his people, 






170 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

not sparing the recital of his sins of omission 
and commission, while giving a catalogue of the 
benefits he has conferred on his country and his 
people, heavy as may be the price which both 
he and they may have to pay for them. This 
Eastern prince is by no means -" that faultless 
monster the world ne'er saw," but a mere man 
like the rest of us, and as such made up out of 
a mingled yarn of virtues and vices. That he 
possesses that sin by which fell the angels — 
ambition — to which a moralist might add vain- 
glory and rapacity, cannot be denied ; that, in his 
zeal for rapidly reforming his cities and his 
people on the European model, he has gone 
too far and too fast for his own comfort and 
that of his subjects ; that in annexing, and 
seeking to annex, Equatorial Africa to Egypt 
he has embarked on a dubious enterprise ; that, 
in looking solely at the ends in view, he has 
often forgotten the means : and in the treatment 
of the fellahs left much to be desired; and, 
finally, that his expenditure has been greater 
than his means ; — all these charges cannot be 
disputed. 

As the father of a family, with four wive 
and, I believe, twelve children, he has left 
nothing to be desired which the most steady 
bourgeois could demand; being a model head 
of the family, on the Oriental plan of course ! 



AS A FAMILY MAN. 171 

Both his sons and daughters have been well 
educated by European instructors, and speak 
and write French, and perhaps other foreign 
languages, with ease and fluency. Both for 
sons and daughters he has insisted on the one- 
wife principle : his sons and sons-in-law being 
each but u the husband of one wife," according 
to the Scriptural recommendation. This is 
certainly a step in the right direction. But the 
young princes only appear in public, or at the 
Khedivial entertainments ; the daughters still 
live on the hareem plan, for which their educa- 
tion has unfitted them. 

The Khedive is an immense worker, and as 
it is one of the taxes on absolute power that 
its head must know and supervise everything, 
even to the minutest details, is compelled to 
get up early and sit up late at the labour he 
loves,, of directing the whole State machinery; 
and these labours and cares are beginning to 
tell upon his health, as his personal appearance 
last winter attested, as well as his own admis- 
sions. Yet the rest and vacation which private 
men may freely take, are impossible to crowned 
heads, especially in such critical circumstances 
as those which environ the Khedive. The 
labours which used to constitute his pleasure 
have become an imperious necessity now. 
When he goes abroad, but little of the pomp 



172 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

and circumstance of royalty surround the hand- 
some but simple equipage which conveys the 
absolute master of five and a half millious of 
Egyptians, and five millions more of Central 
Africans, through the streets of his capital. Clad 
in the Stambouli dress, only his fez cap indi- 
cates the Oriental ; and half a dozen mounted 
guards, in his livery of chocolate, precede and 
follow the carriage, in which he rapidly passes 
by, making salutations as he passes on, by a 
slight gesture of the hand to the Europeans, 
who raise their hats to him — the natives gene- 
rally not courting his recognition, according to 
Eastern etiquette. 

He lives in a fashion partly European, partly 
Eastern — European as to cuisine and mode of 
taking his meals, the latter of which he does in 
company with the chief members of his house- 
hold,, his chamberlains, private secretaries, 
physicians, and others immediately attached to 
his person, with invited guests very frequently. 
His dejeuners a la fourchette at mid-day, and 
dinners at 7 p.m., are in every respect worthy the 
admiration of the most experienced gastronome, 
both as to the dishes and the service, the wines 
included. 

In a subsequent chapter some idea will be given 
of the character of these entertainments of the 
Khedive inside and outside of the hareem, of 



RECEPTIONS, FORMAL AND INFORMAL. 173 

the latter of which, of course, I speak from hear- 
say, and from the report of a lady present at one 
of them, given on the occasion of a Khedivial 
wedding celebration. 

The receptions of the present ruler of Egypt 
are far less formal than those of his immediate 
predecessors, who strictly adhered to all the old 
Eastern usages, and kept up many of the absurd 
and obsolete forms still in vogue at Con- 
stantinople. The unchangeable Abbas was only 
to be seen on compulsion by some foreign repre- 
sentative ; Said, only when the whim seized 
him ; and both carried the visitor through 
fatiguing formalities, pipes, coffee, commonplaces 
diluted through interpreters, and other annoy- 
ances. 

Now the Khedive's receptions are less formal 
and more agreeable than those of any European 
Court ; though the visitor must be properly 
introduced through his own representative at the 
Court, and be accompanied by him, if previously 
unknown to the Khedive. Access to the Khedive 
is wonderfully easy, through his head chamber- 
lain, Zecchy Pacha, or one of the other cham- 
berlains, all of whom are agreeable, polite, and 
accomplished men, speaking French fluently. 
Two of them, Zecchy Pacha and Tonnino Bey, 
have been employed in the same functions under 
the three last viceroys, which speaks volumes 



174 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

for their integrity and capacity, since no duties 
could be more delicate and difficult than theirs. 

Any subject, however humble, may present his 
petition or grievance in writing to " Effendina," 
as they style the Khedive. 

The winter receptions are usually given at the 
Khedive's favourite palace of Abdin, distant 
only two or three hundred yards from the large 
hotels on the Ezbekieh, on the outskirts of the 
city. There is a large open space before the 
palace, somewhat similar to the French Champ 
de Mars, where the troops are constantly drilling 
and exercising, their white tents pitched at the 
other extremity of the square ; and as you drive 
up to the long low range of buildings which 
compose the palace, you are apt to witness 
military manoeuvres going on ; and finer looking 
and better disciplined troops, of a light bronze 
colour, would be hard to find anywhere. 

En route to the palace you pass through 
streets tenanted by small shopkeepers, Levantine 
and native — a most unattractive population of all 
nationalities, who, with their customers, neither 
attract the eye, nor woo the sense of smell with 
the " odours of Araby the Blest." 

But violent contrasts of this kind, between 
the pomps and show of royalty and the ragged 
wretchedness of the lower class, are common 
everywhere throughout the East, where extremes 



HIS THREE RULING PASSIONS. 175 

meet more closely than in other countries. At 
Abdin, dining the winter season when Cairo is 
full of strangers, the Khedive chiefly holds his 
Court, has his formal and informal receptions, 
gives his breakfasts and dinners to distinguished 
foreigners, and two or three soirees musicales or 
dansantes, to which ladies as well as gentlemen 
are invited. 

His larger and grander palace of Ghezireh on 
the Nile, with its beautiful gardens, Eastern 
kiosque, and menagerie of wild beasts, is more 
a show place than a place of regular habitation 
for him ; though occasionally grand entertain- 
ments are given there also. Here the Empress 
Eugenie had her apartments, as well as the 
Prince of Wales, when they visited Egypt. 

The three chief passions of Isma'il Khedive are 
his passion for real estate, his vaulting ambition 
which sometimes overleaps itself, and his mania 
for building, the latter of which he frankly 
admitted to me in conversation a year ago. 
" Every man," said the Khedive reflectively, 
speaking in French, as he always does, "is mad 
on some one subject. My mania is for building" 
— to use his own words, " JTai une manie en 
pierre." It will be well for him and for his 
people should he discover, ere it be too late, his 
two other manias, and set to work to curb and 
to correct them. 



176 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 



CHAPTER XI. 

FOUE NATIVE MINISTERS AND HEKKEKYAN BEY. 

Some of the Khedive's native ministers — Nubar Pacha — His life and 
work — Personal traits — A family of diplomatists — Cherif Pacha — 
Description of him — Eiaz Pacha — The strange story of Ismail 
Sadyk Pacha, the Mouffetich — An Egyptian Wolsey — A visit to his 
three palaces, and what we saw there — The moral of his rise and 
fall — Hekkekyan Bey — His theory of the Pyramids. 

In His reforms the Khedive has been greatly 
aided by his native ministers, most of whom are 
men imbued with European culture, or educated 
abroad, speaking fluently several languages — that 
of. diplomacy, or intercourse with foreign agents, 
being the French. 

The most active and distinguished of these 
ministers have been Nubar, Cherif, Eiaz, and 
Ismail Sadyk Pachas, respectively Ministers 
of Commerce, Foreign Affairs, Justice, and 
Finance. The War Minister has also been 
taken from his own people, though that depart- 
ment has in fact been controlled by the 
American staff officers, about twenty of whom, oil 



NUBAR PACHA. 177 

the Khedive's invitation, entered the Egyptian 
service about six or seven years ago. 

As the jealousy of the Porte has forbidden the 
Khedive to have a navy, his fleet consists only 
of commercial vessels, with a couple of armed 
steamers to protect the commerce of the Red 
Sea, and suppress the slavers. 

Nubar Pacha, though a man of only middle 
age, has been well and favourably known in 
Europe as an able statesman for twenty years 
past, entering the public service, in which 
he immediately took high rank, at a very early 
age. 

Educated to diplomacy by his famous kinsman, 
Boghos Bey, himself one of the ablest counsel- 
lors of Mehemet Ali, his life has been spent in 
this pursuit. Speaking and writing almost all 
the languages of Europe with equal facility, 
and conversant with European affairs and their 
directors, he has steered Egypt free from the 
breakers that surrounded her, under two suc- 
cessive reigns : until falling about a year since 
under the cold shade of royal displeasure, he 
has since been virtually outside of public life, 
and travelling abroad as a private person. 

Nubar Pacha's personal appearance is at once 
striking and prepossessing. Of medium height, 
with swarthy complexion, dark eyes and hair, 
regular features, and a most winning smile; 



178 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

gifted with rare conversational powers, and cour- 
teous, almost caressing in manner and speech, 
there is a persuasive charm in his manner with 
which few men are endowed. 

His firmness, however, is one of his chief 
characteristics, and his frankness almost amounts 
to rudeness at times ; and it is most probably 
this latter quality that has lost him favour at 
Court, where words displeasing to the royal ear 
are most unwonted and unwelcome sounds. 

Nubar is an Armenian Christian, and that three 
viceroys should have retained a man professing 
and practising that creed for a series of years, 
speaks volumes both for their liberality and his 
own capacity ; for he is the worst courtier I ever 
saw, and always has been ; his pride, which is 
great, ever keeping him erect in mind and body 
before his exacting and haughty princes, who 
consider their wish as well as will should be 
law : and that it is a kind of Use majeste for a 
subject to differ from either, even in thought. 
His family have not only served but suffered for 
the State, in the person of his brother Arakel 
Bey — one of the most promising of the rising 
statesmen of Egypt — who in the time of Sa'id 
Pacha was made Governor of the Soudan, and fell 
a victim to the climate in his early prime ; and 
the son and namesake of that brother, the Arakel 
Bey who, as Governor of Massowa, but the other 



HIS CROWNING WORK. 179 

day accompanied Arendrup in the fatal expedi- 
tion into Abyssinia, and perished gallantly 
fighting by the side of that ill-starred commander, 
to avenge whose death the second Egyptian 
expedition was despatched, which has but 
recently returned. Seldom has a single family, 
alien in race and creed to the ruling race, con- 
trived to fill for three generations the highest 
places in the State, especially under the arbitrary 
rnonarchs of the East ; yet to this rare distinction 
the family of Nubar has attained by sheer force 
of character and talent, without ever stooping 
to unworthy concessions, either religious or 
personal. The free institutions of England can 
boast of but one Disraeli at the helm of State, 
while absolute Egypt can point to Boghos Bey, 
to Nubar, and his brother and nephew, as illus- 
trations of an enlightened liberality of sentiment, 
not usually credited to the Turk. 

Perhaps, however, the great and crowning 
work of Nubar' s career, which finally caused his 
exclusion from public affairs, was the establish- 
ment of the mixed tribunals : which at the same 
time placed a check on the absolute power of 
the Khedive, and crippled the influence and 
authority of the agents of foreign governments 
in Egypt, by depriving them of their former 
prerogatives under the old capitulations. At 
this work Nubar toiled with undiminished 



180 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

labour and patience more than twenty years, 
modifying his plan from time to time, but ever 
steadily pursuing the main purpose : and con- 
tending against the double current setting in 
against him, from the throne on one side, and the 
consuls on the other. Whatever success these 
tribunals may obtain, much of the honour -will 
be due to their originator and fostering parent. 
"Whatever defects or shortcomings may be visible 
in the practical working of this invention, Nubar 
cannot be justly made responsible for them, 
since his hand has been taken from the plough, 
at the very moment when most needed there, by 
the caprice of the Khedive ; and he can neither 
supervise his invention, nor give his invaluable 
counsel to those who are trying their " 'prentice 
han's " upon it. 

His relief from the cares of State has however 
reinstated health, that the unremitting labours 
of many years had begun to impair : for, meeting 
him recently at Paris, I was struck with the 
improvement in his face and bearing which his 
year's vacation had wrought. The name of 
Nubar Pacha was prominently brought forward 
at the time of the Conference, in connection with 
the appointment of a Christian governor for 
Bulgaria : but all of his affections and aspira- 
tions turn to Egypt, the land of his birth, in 
which his race — almost as much a standing 



CHERIF PACHA. 181 

marvel as the Jewish people in their dispersion 
and continued separate existence — has fonnd a 
resting-place ; and where he is a large landed 
proprietor and cultivator. 

Cherif Pacha, the contemporary and rival of 
Nubar — the two having gone up and down, like 
two buckets in a well, in the Foreign Office for 
a series of years — has also spent his life in public 
service, in which he has grown prematurely 
grey. 

While Nubar in character and manner re- 
sembles an Englishman, Cherif is thoroughly 
French in looks and address ; probably under- 
standing but not speaking English. He is a 
Mussulman by birth and faith, and conforms, 
though not rigorously, to Eastern forms of 
life and faith. His French affinities were 
strengthened by his marriage with a daughter 
of Suleyman Pacha (the French Colonel Seves), 
who for many years was commander-in-chief 
of the Egyptian army. In appearance, as in 
mind and character, Cherif is the direct opposite 
of Nubar — fair, florid, with light hair and 
eyes, the former of which is turning grey. His 
manner and address are frank and cordial, more 
those of a soldier than of a diplomat. He is 
a man to whom deception would be impossible ; 
his easy careless manner and open face would 

betray him, if he ever attempted it, which 

I 



1-82 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

he does not. He is clever and quick-witted, 
and a most agreeable companion socially : en- 
tertaining much and liberally. His strongest 
passion is for the chase ; and like Nimrod he 
is "a mighty hunter before the Lord." His 
personal qualities make him universally popular. 
I do not believe he has any enemies, for I never 
heard any one speak ill of him, while the sterner 
character of Nubar repels as many as it attracts. 

Cherif Pacha seem to have become an indis- 
pensable man in the Egyptian administration, 
sometimes filling one post, sometimes another : 
but chiefly the ministry of foreign affairs or of 
commerce, alternating with Nubar. 

This fixity of tenure on the part of these two 
statesmen, under so arbitrary a government as 
that of Egypt, contrasts curiously with the 
perpetual change of men, as well as measures, 
under freer and more constitutional rdgimes. 
The Eastern Disraeli and Gladstone have only 
replaced each other in particular bureaux, from 
time to time, but both have continued consecu- 
tively in public service in some other depart- 
ment ; and have not been allowed the leisure 
requisite for the weaving of romances, or cutting 
down of trees, in their interregnums : as Western 
statesmen have been permitted, both by people 
and monarch. 

Eiaz Pacha is a younger man, one of the new 



EIAZ PACHA. 183 

generation. He is an Sieve of Nubar, who care- 
fully trained him to the work, and enjoys a 
reputation for integrity and capacity. He has 
filled, and still fills, important posts, in all of 
which he has given satisfaction, and may be 
considered a rising man. 

But the most curious and disastrous career, 
for the Khedive, the country, and finally for 
himself, was that of Ismail Sadyk Pacha (the 
MoufTetich), late Minister of Finance — a bright 
but baleful meteor shooting across the Egyptian 
sky, to be quenched in sudden darkness, and 
leaving gloom and terror behind. 

Yet his story sheds so much light on Egyptian 
peculiarities, and on the strange blending of 
elements there, that I shall devote some space 
to a narration of the life and death, rise and 
fall of this Eastern Wolsey, who ruled not only 
the country, but seemingly his master also with 
a rod of iron for ten years, through some strange 
influence which no man in or out of Egypt can 
comprehend. 

Ismail Sadyk was what Mr. Pitt was said to 
be, "a heaven-born financier;" for he was 
born and bred an Egyptian fellah, without 
training or culture, and to the day of his death 
spoke or understood no language but his own. 
He was a dark-coloured Arab, slight and 
stooping in frame, with sharp features, a face 



184 the khedive's egypt. 

devoid of expression, and a shifty cnnning eye. 
His manner was alternately fawning or brutal, 
as he spoke to an equal or an inferior ; and at 
first sight he inspired an instinctive repugnance, 
which he was plausible enough to remove when 
it suited his interest, although conferring 
always with Europeans through his interpreter 
(an old Frenchman), it was difficult to judge 
of his conversational powers. It may have 
been owing to this fact that he produced upon 
me, in several interviews I had with him, the 
impression of a crafty but ill-informed and short- 
sighted man, unable to rise to the height of 
a great argument, or even comprehend any- 
thing but an appeal to the most selfish motives 
and interests, taking a narrow and contracted 
view of everything not bounded by his own 
immediate horizon. That he should, however, 
have obtained and held so long a powerful and 
controlling influence over the mind of the 
Khedive (whose intellectual ability no one 
doubts or denies), affords^ proof positive that 
Ismail Sadyk was no common man, although 
" his thoughts were low — to vice industrious, 
but to nobler deeds timorous and slothful." 
But he has proved the evil genius, the very 
Mephistopheles of his master, who finally turned 
upon and destroyed him, in mingled wrath, 
agony, and fear, offering him up as a scapegoat 



THE MOUFFETICH. 185 

for the sins which he possibly may have devised, 
but in which he had many and very high accom- 
plices, thus far escaping with impunity. 

He commenced his career as a common fellah, 
but proving himself faithful over small things 
was rapidly promoted to the care of larger ones 
— the Khedive himself, as prince, employing him 
as the manager of one of his smaller estates. 
From thence, after the accession of his patron 
to the throne, he rose gradually to the post of 
Mouffetich, or Finance Minister : and under his 
evil auspices was commenced that system of 
loans and shifty expedients to raise money at 
any price from foreign or native money-lenders, 
which has plunged the Khedive and the country 
into that worse than Serbonian hog, from which 
both are now so desperately struggling for 
extrication. He was reputed, from his early 
training and experience, to understand better 
than any man in Egypt, how "to pqueeze the 
fellah ! " which meant to wring the last para out 
of the poor wretches by the threat or use of the 
terrible kourbash, or hippopotamus-hide whip, in 
the hands of agents as unscrupulous and merci- 
less as himself — until a cry went up to earth and 
heaven against his oppressions, perpetrated in 
the name, if not by the authority, of his master, 
who has ever borne the character of a humane 
man, constitutionally averse to cruelty. It is but 



186 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

an act of simple justice to the Khedive here to 
say, that my own personal knowledge of his 
character from his earlier days had confirmed 
the popular estimate, and that it is difficult for 
me to believe that he sanctioned all the exactions 
and cruelties perpetrated in his name, through 
the agency of the bold bad man who had won 
his confidence, and acted for several years 
the Wolsey to his master — to meet a heavier 
retribution than his unknown exemplar in the 
end. 

The atmosphere of an Eastern throne is 
favourable neither to the sight nor the hearing 
of its occupant ; and much that is common talk 
abroad never reaches royal ears ; so that 
although the Khedive could not have been 
entirely ignorant of the cruelties and exactions 
perpetrated in his name, and for a long time 
con cloned them, we yet may give him the bene- 
fit of the doubt as to his privity in all the 
offences committed against the unhappy fellahs, 
nominally by his orders, under the direct super- 
vision of the low-born oppressor of his own race 
and brethren. 

The sole apology that can be set up for this 
wretched creature, whose fate has inspired an 
ill-deserved pity for him, is that his sudden and 
giddy elevation had driven him mad ; and that he 
was but partially responsible for his acts; and 



A STRANGE STORY. 18? 

the reckless way in which he rushed upon his 
fate, which his own sane judgment should have 
foreseen knowing the country as he did, would 
seem to sustain this hypothesis. For the sake 
of human nature let us give him the benefit of 
this doubt as to his sanity ; though his nature 
was ever what Carlyle terms the "vulpine " — one 
full of crafty suspicion, and tortuous ways to 
tortuous ends. 

In the very height of his power, profligacy, 
and wealth, he was stricken down as though by 
a thunderbolt from heaven. 

Seeing in the adoption of the financial schemes 
proposed by Messrs. Cave, Goschen, and Joubert, 
the end of his power and his illicit gains, he 
fought desperately against them, and rendered 
his own removal necessary to the Khedive, 
through the revelations he made, and threatened 
to make : whether true or false equally embarrass- 
ing and damaging to his master's credit. 

But he mistook his man, and miscalculated 
his influence. Going a step too far on the path of 
resistance and intimidation, he toppled over into 
an abyss, from which living or dead he never 
emerged ; for where his bones are no man knows 
to-day. 

In the telegrams of the London journals there 
appeared one morning, what seemed to many a 
mere sensational statement — that the Khedive 



188 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

had personally taken the Mouffetich to drive, 
placed him securely in custody, and was to have 
him tried for high treason immediately. Those 
who did not know Egypt discredited the state- 
ment in toto; those who knew it immediately 
believed the statement (whose dramatic features 
made it more probable) and foresaw the end : 
although not the sudden and tragic denouement 
of what, commencing in comedy, ended swiftly 
in sternest tragedy. 

The next day, 15th November, 1876, the 
Egyptian public, which had been feasting on a 
thousand rumours of the most wild and im- 
probable character concerning this event, read 
in the Moniteur Egyptien, the Government 
official journal, the following authorized com- 
munication in Erench : — 

" The ex-Minister of Einance, Ismail Saddyk 
Pacha, has sought to organize a plot against his 
Highness the Khedive, by exciting the religious 
sentiments of the native population against the 
scheme proposed by Messrs. Goschen and 
Joubert. He has also accused the Khedive of 
selling Egypt to the Christians, and taken the 
attitude of defender of the religion of the country. 
These facts, revealed by the inspectors-general 
of the provinces, and by the reports of the police, 
have been confirmed by passages in a letter 
addressed to the Khedive himself by Sadyk 
Pacha, in giving his own dismissal. In presence 
of acts of such gravity his Highness the Khedive 



ITS TRAGIC CONCLUSION. 189 

caused the matter to be judged by his Privy 
Council, which condemned Ismail Sadyk Pacha 
to exile, and close confinement at Dongola." 

The Phare, a semi-official journal in French, 
in republishing this communication next day, 
adds : — 

" The ex-minister, who had been kept on 
board a steamer on the river, to await the 
decision of the Privy Council, was immediately 
placed on board another steamer, which left 
forthwith for Upper Egypt." 

From that hour to this the Mouffetich has 
been lost to the sight of man, and a thousand 
and one stories of the precise manner and time 
of his " taking off," many of the wildest and 
mostly improbable character, have been circu- 
lated and credited in foreign and native circles 
in Egypt. 

Some time after his disappearance, a circular 
was sent to the foreign consuls-general, an- 
nouncing the death of the ex-minister at 
Dongola, accompanied by a jproces verbal from 
the governor of that province, testifying to the 
fact of his arrival and death, enclosing also an 
autopsy made by three physicians, who, after 
post-mortem examination, declared that he died 
a natural death from fatigue, grief, and excess. 

But most of the Cairenes and Alexandrians 

shook their heads sagely over this statement, and 

12 



190 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

persist in believing that the Mouffetich did not 
survive his arrest twenty-four hours : and that 
the steamer which passed up the Nile, with 
windows carefully nailed up looking like a -float- 
ing coffin, encountered by Nile travellers, and 
said to be transporting the Monffetich to his 
place of exile in Upper Egypt, was only sent up 
for effect ; and contained neither the living nor 
the dead ex-favourite and ex-minister. 

So this must take its place among the other 
many mysteries of this most mysterious land : 
whose officials must shake in their shoes some- 
times, in remote provinces, when thinking of 
their old superior and employer, the Monffetich, 
and the thick darkness that enshrouds his real 
offence and fate. 

But however this may be, his removal from 
public station and private intercourse with the 
Khedive marks the vanishing point of the old 
system of extortion, fraud, and cruelty, of which 
he was the master, and the substitution of a 
more hamane and wiser policy, which alone 
can save the Khedive and his country from the 
rain that menaced both — whose ominous shadow 
has not yet disappeared. 

Having reached Cairo shortly after the events 
above narrated, I availed myself of the oppor- 
tunity of visiting the palace or palaces of the 
ex-minister, which were open on certain days 
for inspection. 






VISIT TO HIS PALACES. 191 

The confiscation and sale of the effects and 
property of the Mouffetich, for the satisfaction 
of his creditors, had been advertized, and was 
going on in that leisurely way everything is 
done in this land of bade buMra, or day after 
to-morrow, wherein the poet Thompson should 
have placed his "Castle of Indolence." So we 
concluded to attend it, to see whether the 
rumours as to the boundless wealth and pro- 
digality of the Mouffetich were founded on truth. 
It took a short drive of fifteen minutes to reach 
there. Crowds of people were attending the 
sale, and walking over the acres of carpeting 
that covered the three vast palaces, which 
seemed insufficient to lodge this born-fellah, 
for another incompleted wing was in the course 
of construction at the time of his sudden and 
mysterious disappearance. 

Wolsey, with his Hampton Court, that bluff 
King Hal considered " too great for a subject ! " 
dwindles into insignificance when compared with 
this more than regal robber, who sprang from 
a mud hut on the Nile, in less than ten years, 
into the possession of more palaces, jewels, 
women, and slaves, than Solomon in all his 
glory could boast of. 

The three palaces are in the new quarter of 
Ismailieh — so named after the Khedive — are 
separate piles of buildings, though surrounded 



192 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

by a high wall, and probably cover with theii 
gardens an area as large as that of the Pyramids. 
They are all built and profusely decorated in 
French style, without any regard to expense, 
and to walk entirely through them— for they are 
all vacant now — would take an entire morning. 
The carpeting, the curtains, the furniture, the 
decorations, must have cost untold money, as 
carte blanche must have been given the uphol- 
sterers, and all the thousand rooms these palaces 
are said to contain are furnished in the same 
splendid style — over-furnished in fact, with 
enough gilt and glitter to dazzle one's eyes. All 
the window curtains were of the heaviest and 
richest satin, and the different tints of the same 
colour were perceptible, from chocolate even to 
pale grey, each room being furnished en suite 
with chairs and sofas in French style. There 
were but few divans, and these in rooms 
evidently intended for reception of his native 
friends. The peculiarity was that each room 
shaded off in colour into the next, from dark to 
light, embracing every colour to be found in the 
rainbow. Great taste was displayed in these 
combinations, the portieres on the doors and 
heavy curtains at the windows, of which I 
counted sixteen in one apartment, being of the 
same description. Here this peasant-born, un- 
educated creature, who understood only theft 



AN EGYPTIAN SAKDANAPALUS. 193 

and oppression squatted down, surrounded by 
Ms wives and women. Of wives, regular and 
irregular, he is said to have had thirty-six : each 
one of whom had six white slaves and a retinue 
of black ones. In fact the population of a 
small village was crowded into these piles of 
building, for the gratification of the pride or 
brutal passions of this low-born fellah. Stories 
of his corruption and cruelty were freely circu- 
lated after his fall, and whispered long before ; 
but the "conspiracy," which was made the 
pretext of his death and the confiscation of his 
property, finds few believers in Egypt. They 
say he had earned and richly merited the 
dreadful doom which fell upon him, by a long 
course of crimes ; but that neither the real 
reason, nor the real fate which befel him, has 
been given to the public ; and that he was 
finally the victim of a State necessity, as in- 
exorable as the grave. 

The sale was going on briskly, in the midst of 
a Babel of confusion, at the first palace we 
entered, in the grand reception-room, crowded 
with people of all nationalities and colour. In 
the midst of this parti-coloured crowd a number 
of black and white slaves were moving about, 
with trays full of jewelry, and large cases con- 
taining every description of female ornaments, 
from ceintures set in diamonds to the value of 



194 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

£7000, to cheap jewelry of the most common 
description. These were freely offered for public 
inspection, and were passed from hand to hand 
most carelessly, while the bearers were shouting 
out, at the top of their lungs, the bids already 
made for the objects exhibited. If you wished 
to increase the bid, your name and offer were 
taken down by a scribe at hand, and at the close 
of the day's sale these bids were jotted down 
and the article assigned to the purchaser, if 
the amount bid was considered sufficient by the 
person in charge of the liquidation. I was told 
the articles were bringing high prices : partly on 
the Eastern principle of investing in such port- 
able values, and partly because the creditors of 
the Mouffetich were allowed to discount half on 
account ; and probably thought half a loaf better 
than no bread. 

The old Eastern principle of the inviolabihty 
of the hareem must have been broken in this 
instance, as this jewelry evidently was part of 
the spoils of the multitudinous wives and 
slaves of this Egyptian Sardanapalus. What 
had become of the fair or dusky owners of 
these jewels no one could tell me. The suppo- 
sition was, they had been absorbed into other 
establishments of a similar description ; but 
whether by sale or free gift, "nobody knows and 
nobody cares." If the taste of the Monffetich 



HIS TASTE FOR HOUKIS. 195 

was as comprehensive in houris as in jewelry, he 
mnst have had a most miscellaneous collection 
of ministering angels. Personally he was a 
mean and dirty-looking Arab of low type, and 
to all who had ever seen him, the contrast 
between the man and his surroundings was 
startling indeed. 

Such mushroom growths are possible only in 
the soil, where Jonah's gourd attained its 
wonderful growth in the shortest possible space 
of time ; but his rise and fall, and the relics of 
his luxury, must recall more the romances of the 
"Thousand and One Nights," than the sober 
experiences of modern Egypt in the nineteenth 
century. 

The soil, in which such poisonous fungi can 
suddenly spring up and flourish in rank luxu- 
riance, certainly needs draining and cleansing. 
Passing from the sale-room for jewelry into 
an inner apartment, or series of apartments, we 
saw tables covered with gold and silver plate 
— Eastern and European work — no less than 
precious metals serving the turn of this luxurious 
fellah. Even the ewers and basins, in which he 
and his guests washed their hands, or rather 
had running water poured over them, were 
of silver. The value of many thousands of 
pounds was deposited on the tables of one of 
these rooms alone. Another proof of the change 



196 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

of habits among the rich here, even with those 
who are not Europanized in mind or customs, 
was the substitution of bedsteads for divans, on 
which to sleep. The first palace was full of 
these, intended probably for the use of wives 
or guests ; for the Mouffetich always presented 
the appearance of a man, who wore by day 
the clothes, in which he had slept on a divan the 
previous night. The gardens in front of the 
three palaces were very spacious and handsome, 
and the value of the real estate must be large ; 
but what can possibly be done with these huge 
barracks of buildings, crammed full of costly 
furniture and curtains, almost valueless outside 
of them ? There is some talk of converting one 
of them into public offices. They would serve 
the purpose of hospitals admirably ; only there 
is too much of them, and the decorations are 
too fine. 

But as Mehemet Ali's old citadel palace, and 
even his hareem apartments, are now appropri- 
ated to the army staff, it is more than probable 
that the costly piles of the Mouffetich may come 
to some such use at last. For the moment they 
constitute the sole monument of the man, who 
ruled Egypt with a rod of iron for eight years, 
and died a dog's death at last. 

One of the most curious objects in the palace, 
or palaces, was a very large picture in a heavy 



AN EASTERN PHILOSOPHER. 197 

gilt frame, containing life-sized portraits of trie 
son of the Mouffetich and bis wife, an adopted 
daughter of one of the Khedive's wives. It was 
iust such a picture as you would expect to find 
in a royal palace ; and as neither wore the 
Eastern dress, the resemblance was still stronger. 
The man was sitting, the woman standing — he 
in ordinary Frank dress, without even the 
tarbouch ; she represented in the fashionable 
European dress of the day, of rich blue velvet 
and lace, with a tiara of diamonds on her head 
resembling a crown. She was a very pretty and 
graceful-looking woman, and one would have 
mistaken her for a European — a mistake no 
one would have made as to her husband, whom 
we saw sitting placidly in one of the rooms, 
apparently watching the sale, and entertaining 
his friends with coffee ; as though he were still 
master of the house, and had not been one of 
the chief victims of the heavy retribution, which 
had fallen on his father, and all connected with 
him by blood or interest. 

Not only his fortune and prospects had been 
blasted, but even his wife had been taken from 
him : as she was promptly divorced after his 
father's fall. Yet there he sat, seemingly as 
cheerful and as unconcerned as though the 
family tragedy had been only a Christmas panto- 
mime, and himself a spectator, not an actor in it. 



198 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

Practical philosophy like this Europeans might 
preach, but could never practise. 

In order, however, not to present a bad speci- 
men of the native-born Egyptian (and indeed a 
MoufTetich is always an exceptional type in 
every land), I shall conclude these sketches of 
Egyptians, with a brief notice of a man of whom 
any nation might be justly proud. 

Hekkekyan Bey was one of that strange race 
which, like the Hebrew, has preserved its 
nationality without a country, and is as dis- 
tinctive to-day as it was thousands of years ago. 
He was an Armenian Christian, a kinsman of 
Artin Bey, a former minister. Educated by 
order of Mehemet Ah in England early in the 
present century, he spoke English with the cor- 
rectness of a native, and without the slightest 
accent ; he was a member and correspondent of 
several philosophical societies, as thorough an 
Englishman to talk to, as you might meet any 
day in Pall Mall or Piccadilly. Employed in the 
Foreign Office at home under that now remote 
reign, he fell into disfavour, being no courtier, 
and for thirty-five years spent his time in learned 
leisure, keeping up constant intercourse with 
foreign savants and societies, and occupying 
himself with abstruse philosophical investiga- 
tions. Among other things, he promulgated a 
theory that the Pyramids — of which he asserted 



HEKKEKYAN BEY. 199 

mere had been a long chain — were intended as 
barriers to the encroachment of the desert sands : 
and not, as usually supposed, monuments to 
human pride, or the tombs of kings. To see 
him abroad in his Oriental dress, mounted on 
his favourite dromedary, scouring along the 
Shoubra road or over the desert, you would have 
considered him a veritable type of the old 
Oriental. But visit him in his house at Cairo, 
also thoroughly Oriental, embowered in gardens, 
and on his table you would see the latest sci- 
entific publications from England, together 
with the last English ' journals, evidently his 
'favourite reading. Converse with him, and you 
would marvel at the extent and accuracy of 
his general information, and at the originality 
and boldness of his philosophic speculations ; 
and leaving him, you would regret that powers 
so rare had been of so little use to him- 
self or to mankind. He died at the age of 
sixty-eight, prematurely old, and like Swift "at 
top first." The men who knew Egypt and the 
Egyptians twenty years since, and more recent 
visitors, will remember him as a verv exceptional 
type of the Europeanized Oriental. 



200 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 



CHAPTEE XII. 

THE LAND OF EGYPT AND ITS PKODUCTIONS. 

Egypt nothing, if not agricultural — Contrasted with India and China — 
Feeds her own population — "The life of Egypt" — Five million 
acres under cultivation — How cultivated — Flax culture — Cotton 
culture — Sugar culture — Extracts from recent report on Khedive's 
sugar estates — Curious facts and figures relating to it — The grain 
crops — The date and fruit culture — Land taxation — A painful picture 
of a year's work in the fields. 

Egypt is nothing, if not agricultural. There is 
her strength, her substance, her existence ; and 
so has it been with her since the days when 
Joseph was Pharaoh's chief counsellor, and she 
was the unexhaustible granary of the world. 

Reference has already been made to the wild 
and fruitless efforts of Mehemet Ali to change 
her natural bent and bias, and introduce manu- 
facturing and mining industries by main strength ; 
resulting only in a great waste of time, 
money, machinery, and labour. Similar lessons 
have been given to those of his successors 
who sought to imitate his example : and the 
conclusion has been forced upon unwilling 



202 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

minds' that in the soil alone lies the strength 
and the wealth of Egypt. The whole extent 
of land under cultivation at present is nearly 
five millions of acres, of which about 719,000 
are devoted to the culture of cotton ; the rest 
is devoted to rice, sugar, beans, barley, maize, 
and clover (bersim). From two to three suc- 
cessive crops can be made off this land each 
year, owing to the peculiar features of climate, 
soil, and cultivation. 

It has often and justly been said that " the 
Nile is the life of Egypt ! " for it is owing to 
the aid of its fertilizing waters that Egypt is, 
and has ever been, such an exhaustless granary 
and storehouse of food for man ; while farther 
east we hear, year after year, the despairing cry 
of famishing millions echoing across the wide 
waters, "Give us bread or we perish!" Yet 
hands are far more numerous in India and in 
China — labour far more plentiful and cheaper 
than in Egypt. But the great artery of Egypt's 
life is lacking to them; they have no Nile, 
bearing down from Abyssinia, and regions yet 
unexplored, the rich deposits with which it 
annually fertilizes the favoured land of Egypt, 
and renews the exhaustion consequent on the 
cultivation of untold centuries. In more 
primitive times the great river was allowed to 
follow its own sweet will, and annually overflow 



THE LIFE OF EGYPT. 203 

its banks, to place this deposit upon the surface 
inundated ; but of late years engineering skill 
has been called in to restrain and direct that 
overflow by means of canals ; so that the yearly 
cutting (the "Haleeg") at Cairo, to let in the 
water from the Nile, has become one of the most 
imposing State ceremonials, over which the 
Khedive presides in person, in the midst of great 
and general public rejoicings. 

There are certainly many advantages in the 
new over the old plan, one of which is that the 
natural inundation would keep a large body of 
the lands three months out of cultivation, if left 
to its own wanderings ; but many old Egyptians 
contend that much of the fertilizing deposit is 
lost, by allowing it to settle in the bed of the 
river, when first brought down from Upper and 
Central Egypt. 

Whether this be true or false, it sounds 
plausible ; and the introduction of fertilizers of 
late years into Egypt, would seem to give colour 
to the theory. Man frequently mars Nature's 
plans by meddling with and trying to improve 
them ; and the Nile is an exceptional stream, in 
more respects than in its reversal of the 
ordinary rule in running from south to north : 
in which caprice it has very few companions. 

The whole extent of land under cultivation 
in Egypt Proper, may be roughly estimated as 



204 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

a little less than five millions of acres, out of 
which, according to Government statements, 
719,000 are devoted to cotton; about 260,000 
to sugar, a Khedivial monopoly ; and the rest, 
as previously stated, to different species of grain. 
The two last viceroys have done their utmost 
to introduce steam-ploughs, pumping-machines, 
and improved agricultural implements : and have 
introduced them on their own lands, as well 
as on those of their more enlightened subjects 
(unfortunately yet very few in number) ; but 
the native agriculturists, the fellahs, on their 
small holdings, prefer and adhere to the ways 
of their primitive forefathers, with a mild 
obstinacy that is impossible to overcome. 
They insist on holding fast to the groaning 
water-wheel (or saJchia), turned on its creaking 
wooden beams by the plodding water-ox; they 
prefer scratching the ground with the rude 
wooden contrivance that they term a plough ; 
and the " ox that treadeth out the corn," in the 
Old Testament, has bequeathed his duties to 
his descendants, on the threshing-floor of the 
bare earth, where now as then the Egyptian 
rustic cleanses his grain. Yet such is the 
climate, and such the soil, that even with these 
primitive contrivances, and no fertilizer beyond 
.the Nile water, the most bounteous harvests 
repay the toil of the fellah : and he has not one 



THE FLAX CULTURE. 205 

only, but two or three successive ones, in the 
course of one revolving year. 

In the earlier days of the new Egypt, the 
cultivation of flax was carried on very largely 
and profitably; but has since been supplanted 
by that of cotton. Ibrahim Pacha was in the 
habit of selling his crop of flax, in three different 
parcels to three different purchasers, at different 
prices and at different times. He used then 
carefully to compare the three sales, so as to 
decide where and from whom he could get the 
best price. 

When he paid his short visit to England, he 
suddenly announced to his suite his intention 
of visiting Belfast; and did so, that he might 
examine the machinery, and some new methods 
of preparing the flax adopted there. 

Said Pacha did not in person either super- 
intend the cultivation or the sale of the products 
of his properties, which were never very large. 
He was too much absorbed in other matters, 
for which he had more taste. During his time 
the fellah was left pretty much alone to culti- 
vate his lands, but Said took from the peasant 
proprietors much of the land called Abadiehs ; i.e., 
land which could not be sufficiently or efficiently 
worked, in consequence of the insufficiency of 
hands in the neighbourhood, owing either to the 

want of dense population, or removal of the men 

K 



206 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

from the fields for enlistment in the army, or 
working by corvee on the canals ; both of which 
were very heavy drains on the population. He 
also laid heavier taxes on the fellahs, but being 
at heart a generous and a just man, discouraged 
and punished all oppression or peculation on 
the part of the tax-collectors or governors of 
provinces, when proven to his satisfaction. 

The cotton plant is indigenous to Egypt, and 
has been cultivated time out of mind on the 
narrow strip of fertile land which fringes the 
Upper Nile, beginning at Thebes. But this native 
cotton is of inferior quality, short in staple, coarse 
in fibre, and fit only for the manufacture of the 
coarse stuff worn by the fellah men and women. 
Its cultivation was very limited, and until the 
year 1819 it was the only kind grown in 
Egypt, and was exclusively used for home con- 
sumption. In tnis year, when the energetic rule 
of Mehemet Ali was reviving old Egypt from 
its ashes, a Frenchman named Jumel, walking 
in the gardens of Mako Bey, at Cairo, observed 
a curious plant, the leaf and flower of which 
were unfamiliar to him. He questioned the 
gardener, and learned it was the cotton plant, a 
few specimens of which had been brought from 
India, to give variety to the shrubbery of the 
garden. Seeing the great superiority of this 
plant to the common kind cultivated in the 



THE COTTON CULTURE. 207 

upper country-, M. Jumel brought the matter 
to the attention of the viceroy; who by his 
aid and co-operation, succeeded in making its 
culture general in the fertile lands of the Delta 
of Lower Egypt : whence the great bulk of the 
crop is now obtained. 

It was not until 1840 that the experiment of 
introducing the American sea island cotton 
seed was attempted. Since that time it has 
been largely introduced, and the yield has been 
fully equal to that of the best sea island. From 
some peculiar quality of the soil however, or 
possibly from the system of irrigation adopted, 
it has been found necessary to procure new sea 
island seed every two years ; and the Jumel or 
Mako cotton has therefore been preferred by 
the Egyptian cultivators. 

There are therefore three species of cotton 
grown in Egypt : — 

1st. The native cotton, short staple, coarse. 

2nd. Mako or Jumel, long staple, fine. 

3rd. American sea island, ditto. 

These varieties are all perennial, but are sown 
annually, except the Mako, which will last two 
years. The Mako is greatly preferred, although 
the cotton it produces is not quite equal to the 
best sea island, but rather better than the best 
American upland cotton. 

The two latter species alone are exported; 



208 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

the first, or native cotton, cultivated on the 
Upper Nile, being used chiefly for stuffing 
divans — the Egyptian substitute for our chairs 
and beds, and which serve the double purpose 
of seats by day and couches by night, even 
among the richer classes. It is also used to 
make the " Nizam " or soldiers' uniform, as well 
as the single blue shirt- which constitutes the 
entire toilette of both male and female fellah. 
The culture of this species is not extensive, nor 
are these fabrics now manufactured .as largely 
as formerly. Mehemet AH, who entertained 
the idea of manufacturing on a large scale, 
established twenty-four large factories, employ- 
ing 24,000 operatives, but it was soon found 
to be unprofitable; so that in 1852 all that 
remained of his great enterprise were one large 
mill worked by steam, and three small ones 
worked by ox power, manufacturing chiefly 
army uniforms, and consuming on an aver- 
age not more than 10,000 bales of cotton per 
annum. 

The rapidity with which the cotton culture 
developed itself, after M. Jumel's walk in the 
garden at Cairo, may be inferred from the follow- 
ing statement of exports : — 

In 1821, Exports were 60 bags, of 100 lbs. each. 

1822 „ „ 500 „ 

1823 „ „ 1200 „ 

1824 „ „ 1500 „ 



A NEW DESCRIPTION OP COTTON. 209 

This too while Meheinet Ali's experiment of 
manufacturing was going on, consuming an 
amount of which we have no means of judging, 
as statistics are a modern innovation in Egypt. 
In 1852 the annual exportations of cotton had 
risen to about 44,000,000 pounds; in 1856, to 
57,000,000; and in 1865, to the maximum of 
560,000 bales. 

Quite recently a new kind of cotton has been 
discovered and successfully cultivated in Egypt, 
which is said to yield much more than any 
previously known. Indeed, it is claimed that 
the yield is four times as great as that of the 
ordinary kinds. I was told that this cotton has 
this peculiarity, that the bolls instead of being 
attached to the branches of the plant, adhere 
closely to the stem. I was not fortunate enough 
to be able to obtain any specimens of the plant 
itself : but the seeds were in great demand, and 
some have already been sent abroad. The lucky 
discoverer is a native planter, and the new cotton 
is causing some excitement and veiy "great 
expectations" in the breasts of the excitable 
Alexandrians, to whom cotton still is king ! in 
despite of the heavy losses then over-confi- 
dence in that plant and its products has caused 
them. From one of these gentlemen, who pro- 
bably understands the business, and the cotton 
culture in Egypt, better than any man there, I 



210 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

obtained the statement, which will be found in 
the appendix : and which, coming from a private 
and reliable source, may be more thoroughly 
depended upon than the statements made by or 
through the agents of the Government, who 
often have their own private reasons for increas- 
ing or diminishing the annual yield, or exporta- 
tion, from private or public considerations.* 

While cotton brought high prices — it rose to 
half a crown per pound during the American 
war — it paid well ; but at 7d., as it now is, it 
is hard to see how it can bring a profit on its 
production. 

Sugab. —The culture of the cane, and the pro- 
duction of sugar, have been the great hobby of 
the present ruler of Egypt : who has devoted to 
them an immense sum of money, and a very 
great quantity of the labour of the country, 
diverted for that purpose from far more profitable 
pursuits. This labour, if it cost him personally 
little, has cost the country and the fellahs 
prodigiously dear, and has excited great discon- 
tent among these patient people throughout 
Upper Egypt, whence the corvees for it have 
been drawn, (if I am correctly informed) ; for 
of this I do not speak from my own personal 
knowledge. 

How much this experiment has cost, it is 

* See Appendix H. 



THE SUGAR CULTURE. 211 

impossible even to form an idea of: but the 
enormous amount of useless machinery pur- 
chased and never used, or used unprofitably; 
the vast sums expended on the preparation of 
the lands, and the creation of a canal, on which 
it is estimated a fourth of the labour devoted to 
that of Suez had to be employed, constitute the 
direct expenses. The indirect outlay may be 
computed at a very large sum, and is represented 
by the labour of the fellahs for three months 
every year upon these lands ; which labour, if 
bestowed on their own fields, in the production 
and rotation of their grain crops, would produce 
far more profitable results, — not to speak of the 
improvement in their condition. Even were they 
paid for their labour on the Khedive's lands — 
which I am credibly informed they seldom if 
ever are, and in food if at all — the public loss 
must be equally great in the diminution of the 
crops ; theirs being the only available labour. 

I am not aware that any of the reports on the 
Khedivial debts and property touch on this 
point, which is certainly a very delicate one. 

A very full and apparently fair report on these 
sugar properties has recently been made by two 
foreign experts, who have lately visited them, 
from which I shall make a few extracts, never 
having personally visited the place. 

They report an abundant supply of water, a 



212 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

good railway system for conveyance of the canes, 
etc., and a quantity of machinery vastly exceed- 
ing the wants of the mills, of which also there 
are many more, both in and out of working order, 
than there is any necessity for. " The scarcity 
of labour alone prevents the extension of the 
plantations " in their judgment. 

The Khedive's sugar estates, on the line of 
railway from Cairo to Assiout, extend over a 
tract 100 miles in length, and from twelve to 
sixteen miles in breadth, chiefly on the west 
side of the Nile. 

Canes are grown on the same land two years 
in succession without replanting, after which 
the roots are ploughed up, and the land either 
left fallow for a year, or a grain crop put in. 
The visitors consider the canes to be planted too 
close together, viz. but three feet apart : whereas 
in the West Indies six feet are allowed. The 
mode "of cutting down — hacking with a blunt 
hatchet — is also objected to. Steam ploughs are 
in use there. ''Complete machinery for twenty- 
two factories seem to have been imported, some 
of which are partly erected, others becoming 
gradually buried in the sands on the river's 
banks. There is a skeleton factory near the 
Feshu station, of which the machinery has been 
three parts erected, but the walls were never 
commenced, and the machines left to ruin. 



THE KHEDIVE'S SUGAR FACTORIES. 213 

Original cost in Europe for machinery for 
larger factories is said to have been about 
£130,000 each." 

A large amount of unused extra machinery 
is lying scattered about over the whole country, 
arising from French and English rivalry in the 
erection of factories. The total cost of the 
factories is roughly estimated at £5,000,000; add 
£2,000,000 more for cost of rolling stock of the 
estate railway, pumping engines, etc., and the 
total cost rises to £7,000,000. There is a 
system of railway all over the estate, connecting 
the different factories. This is the only way in 
which the cane can be brought in fast enough ; 
18,000 cantars, or over 800 tons, per day being 
required to keep the large factories going, 
working day and night for sixty or seventy days, 
commencing at the beginning of the year, as the 
canes must be crushed up immediately on ripen- 
ing. The factories are under the management 
of the engineer, the only European now employed 
on these works ; the management of the estate 
being entirely in Arab hands, each separate 
manager looking exclusively to the private 
interests of his section, regardless of the general 
welfare. Their feddan is elastic, and their habit 
is to return a larger quantity of land than is 
really under cultivation, to make their profits 
out of imaginary disbursements for labour, etc. 



214 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

Speaking of the improvements that might be 
made under European administration, the report 
says — " Certainly a higher rate of wages would 
have to he paid than that now paid by the 
Daira ; and there would be probably an in- 
sufficiency of labour, owing to the thin popula- 
tion of this part of the country, and the aversion 
of the people to the ivork. At present all the 
labour is compulsory. 

" At Assiout we saw some small corvees 
working on the above-mentioned canal banks. 
Small children, and boys and girls as young as 
seven or eight years, were walking all day up 
and down the banks, with their baskets of earth. 
Their pay was a daily supply of bread, which has 
certainly improved in quality on that supplied 
them last year. We visited the bakery, and saw 
that it was made simply of coarsely ground 
wheaten flour, but the Nile mud and chopped 
straw had not been too carefully extracted. It 
was lightened, more or less, by sour dough. 
Still it was comparatively good and wholesome. 
The man in charge confessed the quality to be 
superior to that of last year, but attributed the 
reason solely to the improvement in the wheat ; 
a doubtful reason, seeing that they are still using 
last season's wheat, which they were then using 
in its new condition. The children looked very 
thin and miserable, and their extreme poverty 



FORCED LABOUR. 215 

was evinced by the unbounded delight exhibited 
by a small boy, on receiving a coin equal in 
value to one-sixteenth of a penny." 

This is certainly not a nattered or a pleasing 
picture, nor can it be regarded as an exceptional 
one. " There are a dozen sets of large fixed 
pumping engines, with fine brick building and 
tall chimney each, on the Nile banks ; but their 
use has been destroyed by the new canal, called 
the Ibrahimieh, which is cut from the river at 
Assiont by fellah labour : twenty-five to thirty 
yards in average breadth, with rows of fine 
bridges, locks, and sluices dividing the canal 
into three large branches and two small canals. 
The cost of these disused pumps was probably 
not less than £500,000. This new canal is one 
of the largest, finest, and most costly in the 
country. Its chief use is to supply water to the 
Khedive's estates." No statement or estimate 
as to its cost is given. 

The labour question is thus touched on in this 
report, from which it appears that some pay is 
given or promised to the labourers, which is 
" paid in kind — grain or molasses — on which the 
Daira makes a profit; " thus reducing the pay, 
wretched as it is. In fact, the skilled labourers 
are the only ones who really get, or are promised, 
anything beyond a little coarse food — " grain 
or molasses" — which can keep a man or boy in 



216 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

that climate in bad working order. The report 
says — 

" The wages received by the ordinary hands in 
the factories are Id. to l\d. per day for men and 
4td. for boys, and by the hands working in the 
fields 4d. per day for men and *L\d. for boys. They 
are always paid in hind — grain or molasses — on 
which the Daira as a rule makes a profit. As 
mentioned above, they are compelled to work. 
Their condition is exceedingly miserable, and 
their appearance much more savage than the 
fellahs of the Delta. Skilled Arab labourers, 
such as men that attend to the engines and such 
like work, receive 20s. to 25s. per month. Men 
driving the locomotive engines receive from 
£3 to <£5 per month, and stokers about 30s. per 
month. The pay of all is allowed to get much 
in arrear." 

The^grain culture in Egypt — which is so large 
as to suffice not only to feed its own population, 
but to export largely to other countries — together 
with the cotton culture, occupies the exclusive 
attention of the fellahs, when they are not drawn 
from it by requisitions to work on the canals or 
drafted into the army, the conscription being 
practised in a most irregular and sweeping 
manner. In peaceful times, however, a large 
proportion of the soldiers are sent back on leave 
to their villages to aid in tilling the ground ; and 



THE GRAIN CULTURE. 217 

even while in actual service their labour is often 
utilized by their being set to work in squads 
in the fields, under command of non-commis- 
sioned officers. It is said their labour is far 
superior to and more reliable than that of the 
ordinary fellah, who is a steady but not a fast 
worker in the old style. This conversion of the 
bayonet into the plough, is one of the most 
sensible things which is done by the Egyptian 
Government ; and a permanent change in the 
occupation of thousands of the stalwart young 
fellows, who constitute the army of Egypt, by 
their return to peaceful pursuits, would prove a 
blessing to them and to their country ; since war 
is a game at which only powerful monarchs can 
afford to play. The land now pays an annual 
tax of almost, if not quite, £i, 000,000, including 
the Moukabaleh — of which explanation will be 
given in the chapter on finance — a taxation 
which, on 5,000,000 acres (one-fifth of which, 
being royal property, only nominally pays the 
tax), must be admitted to be very onerous 
indeed. 

But, unhappily, this is only one of the Govern- 
ment impositions on the landholders, as the 
annexed statement from a most reliable source 
will show. The value of the crops on average 
lands on the two years' system of rotation is as 
follows :— 



218 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 













Expenses. 






P.T. 






Water. 


P.T. 


" Cotton, 


3 j cantars, at ... 


260 


equal 


to 910 less 260 equal to 650 


Wheat, 


6 ardebs, at 


50 


» 


240 


» 70 


„ 170 


Maize, 3 ardebs at 


60 


n 


180 


„ 100 


80 


Bersim 


(clover), per crop 


— 


» 


600 


» 140 


„ 460 



P.T. 1360 
£13 19s. Od. 

"In the three years' rotation these figures 
would, of course, be altered, but as I am only 
considering the fellaheen cultivation it is unne- 
cessary to give the three years' figures in detail. 
Thus the gross annual receipts of the two feddans, 
at the present price of cotton, only come to about 
,£7. The expenses which must be deducted, in 
addition to the watering, in order to arrive at 
the net result, such as the price of seed, labour, 
and carriage, are difficult to arrive at, and vary 
according to circumstances. Thus the cattle 
plague of this year has swept away two-thirds of 
the horses in the country, and has enormously 
increased the expense of carriage to railway, 
canal, or warehouse. But the ordinary calcula- 
tion is that the wheat, maize, and clover crops 
pay all working and living expenses, and the 
value of the cotton — £6 13s. 6d. — goes to pay 
the two years' taxes. The living expenses are 
marvellously small. Bread and vegetables are 
the food, Nile water the drink, an annual cotton 
gown the clothing, a mud hut the shelter. 
There could not be a creature of fewer wants 



EGYPTIAN TAXATION. 219 

than the Egyptian fellah. It will be a sign ol 
progress when he is less of an animal and his 
wants are more complex. 

" Now, as regards the amount of taxation, I am 
informed on very good authority that the taxes 
levied on land during the last two years in the 
Delta, including the Moukabaleh, the National 
Loan, and a small war tax, have exceeded 
P.T.400* per annum. The taxation has therefore 
been in actual excess of receipts, and although 
the fellah and his family have slaved in the fields 
from sunrise to sundown, he has failed to make 
the two ends meet. In many cases loans from 
Europeans at usurious rates have furnished the 
means of payment. Pay-day has now come. 
The capitalists are encashing what they can, and 
the tribunals are full of such cases. In fact, it 
is going hard with the fellaheen — beasts, pro- 
duce, goods, hareem jewellery where it existed, 
and even the land itself are being sold to meet 
their debts. One does not like to believe that 
even this enormous fiscal charge has been in- 
creased by irregular exactions, but all informants 
concur in saying that this has been so." 

This is not a pleasing picture, but my own 
observation and inquiries induce me to believe 
that it is unhappily, a true one. 

* We may roughly reckon 100 piastres to the pound sterling, which 
would bring the taxation up to £4 per annum. 



220 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

The Khedive ought not justly to be saddled 
with the whole responsibility of this, for he is 
the heir to a vicious system, and the clamour of 
his creditors, public and private, has driven him 
almost to desperation, and desperate diseases 
often demand desperate remedies. 

The creditors of Egypt, however, who are the 
instigating cause of these exactions and oppres- 
sions, should have sense enough to see that no 
goose, however golden, can long survive such 
treatment — no people, however patient and long- 
suffering, live and work under it. The speedy 
end of persistence in a policy at once so cruel 
and so fatal should at once be insisted upon, 
even at the cost of a reduction of the interest 
now paid them out of the sweat and blood of 
the fellaheen, and by impositions, ordinary and 
extraordinary, which no country or people on 
earth could long endure. 

Gladly indeed, if he could safely do so, would 
the Khedive diminish these burdens; and his 
offer to assign over his sugar estates to his 
creditors, and wash his hands of all responsibility, 
proves at once his humanity and his sagacity. 

Shall Christian creditors be less humane and 
less sagacious than this Mohammedan ruler? 
Will they make themselves responsible before 
heaven and earth of complicity in cruelties and 
exactions, which sicken even the callous hearts 



WHO IS MOST EESPONSIBLE ? 221 

of the Moslem, who are, under their constraint, 
inflicting them ? 

These are questions that the outside world, 
who are not creditors to the Khediye, will ask, 
and which they must be prepared to answer. 
For, I repeat, the solution of this stern problem 
rests more with them than with Ismail Khedive, 
"who is as clay in the hands of the potter," in 
the hands of his foreign creditors. 



222 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYFT. 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

THE FELLAHEEN. 

Who is the fellah, and what is he ? — His earlier history as written on 
the tombs and temples, in the Scriptures, on stone and papyrus — A 
letter three thousand years old concerning him, in the British 
Museum — How Joseph treated him under Pharaoh — Origin of land 
tenure in Egypt — Under the Mamelukes and the house of Mehemet 
Ali, the new masters of his "house of bondage" — His treatment 
under successive viceroys — His present condition. 

One fundamental mistake underlies almost every- 
thing that has been said or written of the 
Egyptian fellah, either by his sentimental or 
indignant advocates, by kind-hearted women, 
or sympathetic tourists, who, regarding him as 
the dumb drudge — the serf, adscriptus glehce, 
attached to the land and not owning it — have 
been entirely in error as to his true position and 
stake in the country, which owes its wealth to 
him. 

Strange as it may sound to those who know 
and have seen the fellah only by the wayside, or 
working in gangs upon the corvees (compulsory 
labour for public works), or whining out for 



2^4 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

" backsheesh " at the railway stations, every 
man among them is or has been a land-owner 
or a land-holder by lease ; and the bitterest taunt 
that one fellah woman can launch at another 
is this, in the Arabic vulgate : "(jo! Poor 
woman ! Your man does not own even a 'karat ' 
(twenty-fourth part of an acre) of land!" So 
identical are property and " respectability," even 
among these ragged landed aristocrats ! 

The researches of Egyptologists have proved 
that the common belief, that the fellah is not 
the direct descendant of the Egyptian labourer, 
is equally erroneous. They have proved him 
not to be a spawn of the Arab conquerors under 
Amrou, but the original denizen of the soil : who, 
submitting to this last invasion, as he had to all 
preceding ones, ended by adopting the language 
and religion of the latest of his masters. 

Not only do the recently deciphered papyri 
attest this, but an observant traveller to-day, 
turning from the sculptured faces in the pro- 
cessions in the temples and tombs, to the faces 
of the fellaheen who bear the torches by whose 
light he sees them, cannot fail to be struck by 
the similarity in type and outline between the 
two ; still distinctly recognizable after the lapse 
of four thousand years. 

The Copt is manifestly of the same ancient 
race, perhaps of a higher caste or class; or 



ANCIENT- AND MODERN EGYPTIANS. 225 

perhaps the differences of religion, culture, and 
occupation in cities for centuries, and sedentary 
and studious lives, may have occasioned the 
difference in the complexion and contour between 
the two : which in the upper country are not 
so perceptible as in the Delta, or in the cities. 
It is also probable that the Copt is of purer 
blood : for in many of the fellahs the intermix- 
ture of negro blood is plainly perceptible, both 
in complexion and conformation. 

Discarding then these fundamental errors in 
the outset, and recognizing the fellah as the 
aboriginal Egyptian by blood and descent, as 
well as the landed proprietor, let us examine 
his past and present lot in the home to which 
he has adhered for ages, apparently as immove- 
able from it as the Pyramids, reared by the toil, 
sweat, and blood of his forefathers. 

The condition of the man who aspires to no 
higher lot than a living earned by daily manual 
labour — of the daily drudge, tilling the fields from 
sunrise to sunset, demanding only " a fair day's 
wage for a fair day's work" — has in all ages and 
countries been a hard and a pitiable one, and is 
so still. It is so even to-day, in countries boast- 
ing the brighter lights of Christianity and civili- 
zation, separated as "the labouring class" are 
even there by a wall higher than the Chinese, 
from their more fortunate and richer brethren, 



226 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

whose own good fortune and merit, or that of 
their progenitors, has placed them higher in the 
scale, and relieved them from the debasing 
drudgery of incessant toil. Without preaching 
either Chartism or Communism, or declaring 
with the French philosopher that " all property 
is robbery," every candid and thoughtful in- 
quirer into the problem of our modern social 
system must admit, that the unequal distribu- 
tion of this world's goods, and the disparities 
in the lot assigned to the different classes that 
constitute the population of different countries 
from birth to death, prove that we are still far 
from securing " the greatest good of the greatest 
number," even by our model institutions, in this 
nineteenth century. 

While Christendom can show, in its ripest 
fruit, such cankers as large bodies of daily 
labourers not only living "without Glod in the 
world" — like dumb driven cattle — but even 
ignorant of His existence, and dwelling under- 
ground in a darkness that is moral as well as 
physical — while large masses of peasantry all 
over Europe are as stolid and ignorant, and 
far more brutal, in their tempers and propen- 
sities, than the oxen they drive ; it cannot too 
loudly condemn Eastern rulers when a maddened 
labouring class, in the great centre of our civili- 
zation can perpetrate the horrors of the Com- 



THE OLD "HOUSE OF BONDAGE." 227 

mime, and hundreds feast and revel in high 
places, while millions drudge and pine and starve 
in the midst of plenty. We, in our more favoured 
countries, may not hold up our hands like the 
Pharisee, and " thank God we are not as other 
men ! " when the fellah's lot is compared with 
that of the labourer elsewhere, dreary and forlorn 
as the fellah's lot may be. 

But it is exceptional in this — that as his 
forerunners were in the time of the building of 
the Pyramids, when Moses led his people out of 
the "house of bondage," when Joseph was the 
favourite at Pharaoh's Court, and when suc- 
cessive waves of races swept over Egypt, each 
leaving its mark; even so is he to-day, the 
humble tiller of the soil, content with the 
scantiest supply of food and raiment and shelter, 
and the smallest wages for his daily work, that 
ever kept together body and soul, in any clime 
or age. 

Coming down as late as the Norman invasion 
of England, the Saxon churl's existence was 
little if any better than the fellah's; for he 
was not even a free man, he wore round his 
neck the visible badge and collar that announced 
his slavery, which the fellah never did, being 
always nominally free : and was lodged and fed 
scarcely better than the swine he tended. But 
Gurth the swineherd has passed into tradition 



228 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

now, and the Saxon blent with the Norman 
blood makes the backbone of the country, the 
vigorous English yeoman. The continental 
peasant too has improved with the progress 
of his country into something more than a 
mere dumb drudge ; but the Egyptian labourer 
has not risen much above the level of that life 
we see sculptured on stone, on the walls of the 
old tombs and temples, thousands of years ago. 
He' is still the sole tiller of the soil, a tool in 
the hands of merciless taskmasters, " a strong 
ass crouching under burdens : " yet, strange to 
say, as contented and merry a creature, as 
apparently blind, deaf, and careless to his own 
wrongs and hardships and ill usage, as the 
patient ox and ass, who are his daily and con- 
genial associates. To him the old " house of 
bondage" seems to have been a peculiar heri- 
tage, and to have lost many of its terrors ; for, 
from generation to generation, he abides peace- 
fully and uncomplainingly under the shadow of 
its palms, and performs his allotted task, if not 
unmurmuringly, at least patiently. 

Modern research and patience, which have 
disentombed and deciphered the old papyrus 
records of the elder Egypt, have recently given 
us a curious proof of the unchanged and appa- 
rently unchangeable condition of the Egyptian 
labourer. A papyrus now preserved in the 



THE "ESTATE OF THE RUSTIC." ' 229 

British Museum contains part of the correspon- 
dence between Ameneman, the chief librarian of 
Ramses the Great, and the poet of the period, 
Pentatour, whose poem recording the achieve- 
ments of the Egyptian monarch is engraved on 
the walls of the temple of Karnak at Luxor. In 
a letter written to this Tennyson of three 
thousand years since, Ameneman thus describes 
the condition of the Egyptian peasant of his 
day. As the translator justly remarks, " one 
seems to hear Eenelon or La Bruyere speaking 
of the poverty, the ignorance, the sordid exist- 
ence of the Erench peasant under Louis XIV.," 
only the Egyptian's lot was far the harder of 
the two ! 

" Have you ever represented to yourself in 
imagination," says Ameneman, "the estate of 
the rustic who tills the ground ? Before he has 
put the sickle to his crops the locusts have 
blasted part thereof; then come the rats and 
birds. If he is slack in housing his crop, the 
thieves are on him. His horse dies of weariness 
as it drags the wain. The tax-collector arrives ; 
his agents are armed with clubs, he has negroes 
with him who carry whips of palm branches. 
They all cry, ' Give us your grain ! ' and he has 
no way of avoiding their extortionate demands. 
Next, the wretch is caught, bound, and sent off 

to work, without wage, at the canals : his wife is 

L 



230 the khedive's egypt. 

taken and chained, his children are stripped and 
plundered." 

"Without asserting or believing that the Egyp- 
tian fellah's lot to-day is truly shadowed forth 
in this terrible picture of the ancient Egyptian 
labourer, sketched by a contemporary observer 
more than three thousand years ago, I may still 
suggest that, in some respects and in some 
qases, it is applicable still, away from the great 
cities and thoroughfares, which rest under the 
eye of the Khedive and of the European popu- 
lation; giving the Khedive the credit of not 
being responsible for a tithe of the wrongs and 
outrages perpetrated under cover of his name. 
But the system that allows such outrages and 
oppression, in despite of the efforts of a reform- 
ing prince to rectify them, certainly demands a 
complete and radical revision, in his own in- 
terests, as well as in those of our common 
humanity. 

Without crediting all the stories that are 
current, as to the treatment and condition of 
tie fellah population in the upper country and 
remoter provinces, it must be evident to the eye 
of the most careless observer, who passes any 
time in the country — even in making the or- 
dinary Nile voyage — that the fellahs are miser- 
ably lodged in huts of mud, with no pretensions 
either to cleanliness or comfort ; that they ar< 



ASKING FOE BEEAD AND RECEIVING STONES. 231 

insufficiently clothed in dirty blue cotton shirts 
(men and women), and underfed; while, at the 
same time, they are overworked and overtaxed : 
and the proportion of those who are either 
comfortable in sircumctances or condition is so 
small as almost to count as nothing in the calcu- 
lation ! This state of things certainly should 
not be allowed to continue as a reproach, not 
only to Egypt, but to our century ; and some- 
thing should be done to raise these poor 
creatures to the level of the labouring class else- 
where ; low as that level unfortunately is in too 
many countries, calling themselves civilized and 
Christian. 

This should be the Khedive's first care, and 
should take the precedence in his mind of grand 
schemes for the extension of his empire, or for 
public improvements, or for the erection of 
costly palaces or piles of stone and marble in 
his great cities ; lest the old cry. again arise from 
the suffering people, to curb his pride — " We ash 
for bread, and you give us stones ! " 

The " true believer," both Turkish and Arab, 
lays great store by the teachings and acts of 
the early Hebrew patriarchs, whose lives and 
environment assimilated so much to his own, 
and has deduced from both the rules which 
govern his society to-day. His version, how- 
ever, of the utterances and doings of the early 



232 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

Israelites varies considerably, in many instances, 
from our accepted version of them ; and one of 
these discrepancies relates to the proceedings 
of Joseph during the seven years of famine that 
succeeded the seven years of plenty in Egypt, 
after his reading of Pharaoh's bad dream about 
the seven fat and the seven lean kine. 

The Moslem version of Joseph's proceeding 
on this memorable occasion is, that he availed 
himself of the distress and famine among the 
people, and of his own superior foresight in 
laying up large supplies of grain during the years 
of plenty, by buying up from the starving people 
one-fifth of the land of Egypt, in consideration 
of corn supplied them at famine prices — an act 
more creditable to his head than to his heart, 
however it may redound to his business capa- 
city. Hence the Arab conquerors of Egypt 
established in Egypt a " vaTcf" or ownership 
on the part of the Church of one-fifth of the 
lands, together with a dime, or tax in the 
shape of a tithe, upon the rest, which tax, 
varying in sum and substance — always heavy, 
and recently most oppressive — paid in kind 
or produce instead of money, and thus made 
as elastic as the conscience of the tax-gatherer, 
has continued to be levied until this day. The 
Eastern tax-gatherer, from immemorial time, has 
been a leech of the worst description ; for even 



UNJUST COLLECTORS OF TAXES. 233 

Matthew, who afterwards was numbered among 
the saints subsequently to his change of heart 
on encountering Christ, is noted in the New 
Testament as having been " an unjust collector 
of taxes ; " and his lineal descendants in nature, 
if not in blood, still abound throughout the 
Eastern world. 

When, following in the footsteps of the 
Greek, the Roman, and the Goth, Amrou led 
his victorious army, under the flag of the 
Crescent, to take possession of Egypt, and the 
Holy Land became also the spoil of the infidel, 
the old land titles were left undisturbed, though 
tribute and taxation were imposed on the 
proprietors. Through all the anarchy that 
succeeded the Arab occupation (including the 
brilliant but oppressive sway of the Mamelukes, 
and brief episode of Napoleon's memorable occu- 
pation of Egypt), the possession of the soil still 
remained in the hands of the fellahs, with the 
exception of a small portion held by the ruling 
race, more for their occupation and pleasure 
than for their profit. But when, early in the 
present century, Mehemet Ali was named by 
the Sublime Porte as Pacha of Egypt, and 
after he had secured his absolute control of 
the country and people, though still professing 
allegiance to the Porte, by the slaughter of 
the Mamelukes, he turned his attention to the 



234 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

land question in most Napoleonic fashion. 
There were two kinds of land — one held in 
fee and cultivated by the peasant proprietors ; the 
other the Abadiehs, or waste lands. Mehemet 
Ali finding or pretending that many of the 
lands of both qualities were insufficiently culti- 
vated, or not at all, in consequence of the 
insufficiency of the population, and that conse- 
quently the taxes due his Government therefor 
were or could not be paid in sufficient sums to 
meet his wants — which were -ever increasing — 
for the great schemes of public improvement he 
meditated, disturbed "the existing arrangements 
by making large grants of land to his favourites 
to cultivate, taken partly from one class, partly 
from another, sometimes dispossessing the 
original proprietors. 

When, after his long and brilliant rule of 
more than forty years, his grandson Abbas suc- 
ceeded to the throne (the mere episode of the 
seventy days' reign -of Ibrahim counting for 
nothing in this regard), there was an immediate 
and radical change of policy in this respect. 
For Abbas, with all his other faults, was the 
staunch friend and supporter of the fellah 
in all his ancient rights and privileges, which 
he revived and secured to him both by edicts 
and by practical action. While depriving the 
rich of the lands given them by Mehemet Ali, 



THE POLICY OP THE VICEROY. 235 

that they might revert to their original owners : 
despoiling the wealthy, to whom he was both 
unjust and cruel : and making himself an object 
of suspicion and terror to the members of his 
own family: he was the constant friend and 
patron of the lower class ; which history proves 
to have been no exceptional case with despots. 

Be this as it may, however, the fact remains, 
whatever the prompting reason may have been ; 
and the Egyptian fellah really has more cause 
to-day to bless the memory of the gloomy and 
cruel Abbas, than that of the generous-tempered, 
open-hearted Said, in so far as this land question 
is concerned. 

For Said reversed, and to a considerable extent 
undid the restitution made by Abbas in respect 
to the land tenure ; reverting more to the policy 
of his grandfather — imposing additional burdens 
of taxation upon it, and parcelling out again 
much of what he declared to be public lands, 
because their proprietors could not cultivate or 
properly utilize them. 

The policy of Ismail Khedive has differed 
from that of all his predecessors ; for, while he 
has imposed more and heavier taxes upon land, 
its products, and its occupants, so as to wring 
treble the revenues out of it ever obtained by 
Said, his immediate predecessor : he has secured 
for himself, in his own name and those of his 



236 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

sons and daughters, fully one-fifth of the hest 
and most valuable of the lands of Egypt under 
actual cultivation; but one- half of which, the 
title being in his own name, he offers to his 
personal creditors, in extinction of his Daira 
debt. 

When he mounted the throne in 1863 — just 
fourteen years ago — his personal real estate was 
comparatively small . in quantity. Since that 
time he has bought out the property of his half- 
brother Mustafa and his uncle Halim, for many 
millions respectively, for which two of the 
Egyptian loans were issued; thus creating the 
confusion between the public and private in- 
debtedness, which has rendered the task of suc- 
cessive financiers, sent from abroad to clear up 
these accounts, so difficult and perplexing.* 

The present condition of the fellah, and of 
the real estate of Egypt is as follows : — There 
are 5,000,000 of feddans under cultivation. .Of 
these, 1,000,000 are Khedivial or family property; 
the rest, outside of a few large landed proprietors, 
such as Nubar and Cherif Pachas, and other 
high dignitaries of the Court or distant members 
of the blood royal, amounting to say 3,500,000 
feddans, is still the property of the fellaheen, or 
native peasantry. Their lands are subject, how- 

* See Mr. Sandar's statement of the Khedive's Daira property 
and the supposed income therefrom in Appendix. 



OLD AND NEW TAXES. 237 

ever, to a most grinding taxation, varying from 
£1 10s. to .£3 10s. per feddan per annum — some 
say even more — by irregular impositions ; in 
most instances giving the cultivator, or peasant 
proprietor, only enough out of his earnings to 
eke out a bare subsistence, and afford such scanty 
and insufficient shelter, food, and clothing as 
keeps life together in himself, his family, and 
the camel, ox, or ass he employs in his daily 
labour. 

The taxes, too, are taken in kind, not in cash ; 
so that the tax-collector can levy an additional 
amount by his valuation of the crop. 

Then too comes the new tax borrowed from 
France — the octroi, which is estimated at eight 
per cent, ad valorem; - and is also liable to in- 
crease the same way. 

There is also a tax upon date'trees bearing 
fruit, a tax upon trades and professions, a tax 
even upon donkey-boys, who have to pay for 
their badges. In fact, taxation seems modelled 
upon the old Eoman model, as mentioned in the 
Scripture, where the edict went out from Csesar 
that " all the world should be taxed ; " and that 
relic of the old Roman rule has certainly sur- 
vived in full force and vigour in Egypt, supple- 
mented by more modern inventions, such as the 
octroi. 

But the heaviest imposition of all is that of 
L2 



238 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

the corvee, which., nominally abolished, except 
in case of necessary labour on the canals for 
irrigation, is still enforced on a large scale in 
the upper country, for the benefit of the Khe- 
dive's sugar estates, and those of his family and 
particular favourites : where for three months 
in the year large bodies of men are taken in 
gangs to work, receiving neither wages nor food 
for themselves and their camels — -their wives 
having to bake and bring bread for their hus- 
bands, and the men to supply and feed their own 
cattle. 

Domestic slavery in Egypt, and the internal 
slave-trade which has long supplied its demands 
and those of Turkey in Europe — against which 
European philanthropy raises its voice so loudly, 
and against which all its shafts are levelled — 
great as their abuses may be, are far more diffi- 
cult to reach and remedy, than this other cancer 
in the breast of Egyptian society, to extirpate 
which might be a slow, but would certainly be a 
comparatively easy task, as well as a profitable 
one, to the Khedive and his country. Now that 
he has offered to surrender up the manage- 
ment and proceeds of his vast sugar estates to 
his creditors, that they may be placed under 
European control and direction, the main 
cause for the continuance of the corvee, or of 
compulsory labour, either in the fields or on the 



THE NATIVE TAX-PAYER. 239 

private canals which irrigate them, will cease to 
exist ; and the Khedive himself no longer he 
tempted to resort to it, under pretexts however 
specious. 

Let us therefore hope that, under these new 
circumstances, the fellah's lot may be amelio- 
rated, and his opportunity of getting "a fair day's 
wage for a fair day's work " out of his own fields 
be no longer prevented ; as well as that, in pro- 
viding for the payment of the foreign creditors, 
and presenting a good showing in the monthly 
receipts in the Caisse presided over by the 
European controllers, equal consideration may 
be shown for the native tax-payer, as for those 
he is made to pay out of the sweat of his brow, 
for money which never profited him. 

I find some statements so a propos to this in 
the Alexandria correspondence of the Times, of 
a recent date, that I cannot forbear to quote it 
in confirmation of my own comments on this 
head. The correspondent says — 

" The war-tax which was voted by the 
Egyptian notables is being rapidly encashed, and 
the usual mode of collection is being followed, 
as regards- that portion which falls on the land. 
The sheikhs of the villages are summoned to 
the chief towns. The nioudirs, or governors, 
tell them how much is needed and when. A 
rough assessment is nominally followed, and the 



240 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

authorities are supposed to be guided by certain 
fiscal regulations. But tliese paper restrictions 
are not too strictly observed ; all the moudir 
really insists upon is that the money be forth- 
coming; and it goes hard with the sheik who 
fails to squeeze the right amount out of his 
people. The tax is levied as an increased 
charge of ten per cent, on all previous imposts, 
after the manner of the centimes additionels 
which provide for provincial administration in 
France. It will realize about half a million 
sterling. But that amount is increased by a 
voluntary subscription, a patriotic fund, raised 
from the native moneyed class, which will pro- 
vide an additional £100,000." 

The simplicity of this contrivance for squeezing 
the fellah, is only equalled by its completeness. 
Appeals to " patriotism," made in such a shape, 
cannot fail to meet a satisfartocy response ; but 
can the fellah bear these additional impositions, 
broad as his back may be ? 

The correspondent goes on to confirm yet 
more strongly my previous assertions as to the 
present condition of the labouring class, and his 
testimony coming from a witness on the spot 
carries conviction with it. He says — 

"A contract was concluded yesterday by the 
Government with a Manchester house, which 
much improves the prospect of the July coupon ; 



THE FELLAHEEN. 241 

£500,000 is to be advanced, one-half now, one- 
half in London, on the 10th of July. The 
Government on its side undertakes to deliver by 
that date, in successive deliveries of 50,000 
ardebs, 600,000 ardebs of wheat and beans, 
which are to be paid for at the market price of 
the day in Alexandria. This produce consists 
wholly of taxes paid by the peasants in hind ; and 
when one thinks of the poverty-stricken, over- 
driven, underfed fellaheen in their miserable 
hovels, working late and early to fill the pockets 
of the creditors, the punctual payment of the 
coupon ceases to be luholly a subject of gratifica- 
tion. The fellah would open his eyes if he were 
told that taxes are only payment for benefits 
received ; a contribution to a fund which is 
wholly expended for the public good ? " 

With this confirmatory testimony as to the 
fellah's actual condition and prospects, under 
the existing state of things, I close this chapter, 
which could readily be made a volume, and even 
then the half would not have been told. 

To see the Egyptian fellah as the traveller sees 
nim, he is a most amusing, picturesque, and 
Oriental object, in perfect keeping with the 
scenery which surrounds him — whether jogging 
along on his small donkey, his feet almost touch- 
ing the ground, in his peculiar costume, which 
scanty as it is suffices for his comfort in that 



242 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

climate ; or labouring in the fields, accompanied, 
by his strange-looking water-ox, half cow, half 
hippoj)otamus in appearance ; or, when his day's 
work is over, squatting upon his hams in that 
position which only he can comfortably assume, 
and which would certainly entail a cramp in the 
leg or a back somersault on any less-experienced 
practitioner. In spite of his dirt, his rags, his 
half-starved appearance, he looks happy, or if 
not happy content with his lot, hard as it seems 
to the stranger. If "happiness be indeed our 
being's end and aim," then must the poor fellah, 
who so many have compassionated and so many 
more despised, truly have more nearly attained 
that end and aim, than the wise and great ones 
of the earth, to whom increase of knowledge and 
of worldly goods and honour have only brought 
increase of care. But should curiosity, or some 
higher motive, prompt the stranger to follow him 
home and carefully picking his way through the 
filthy narrow paths that cannot be called streets, 
peer into the interior of the mud hut — into the 
single apartment where his family and all his 
visible worldly goods are crowded, half hidden by 
the smoke which fills the windowless den, without 
chimney or other aperture to admit light or air, 
save the open doorway — all his senses of sight, of 
smell., of hearing, of touch, of taste, will be equally 
revolted. Yet in huts like these do the great 



THE NEW HOUSE OP BONDAGE. 243 

mass of the fellah population live, and propagate 
blear-eyed and unhealthy children, from genera- 
tion to generation ; secreting and hoarding what 
money they may earn, without any attempt or 
desire to improve a condition and style of life 
which would prove utterly unbearable and im- 
measurably wretched to any other agricultural 
class in the world. Yet the almost untold 
millions squandered by Egyptian rulers on" works 
of vanity, and on useless expeditions for centu- 
ries past, have been extracted out of this appa- 
rently impoverished and half-starving population, 
and each year renews the ever-recurring miracle, 
to the astonishment of the rest of mankind. 

Is it not time this tragi-comedy, which has in 
it far less of laughter than of tears, should be 
brought to a conclusion ; and the curtain be 
allowed to fall on a redeemed and regenerated 
race — even though residing still in the old 
" house of bondage " ? 



'244 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 



CHAPTEE XIV. 

SCIONS OE THE KOYAL HOUSE OF MEHEMET ALL 

The sons of Ismail, and other scions of the royal house, yet surviving 
— The sons of Ahbas and of Said Pachas blasted in the hud — The 
sons of the Khedive — Mohamed Tewfik, heir presumptive — His 
brothers Hussein and Hassan — Characteristics of each — The younger 
sons — How the Khedive is educating his children — Their uncle 
Halim Pacha, formerly heir apparent under the old rule — His 
character — Description of how he hunted the gazelle with hawk 
and hound — Eevival in Egypt of a mediaeval sport — Halim's 
prospects. 

The sons of the Khedive have been most care- 
fuHy«trained and educated, and if they do not 
prove clever and useful men the fault is theirs, 
not his ; for neither expense nor care has been 
spared on their intellectual and physical develop- 
ment. European tutors have been furnished 
them from a very early age, who have indoc- 
trinated them in the usual branches of a liberal 
education, including the languages of Europe, or 
at least a portion of them ; and the younger 
ones have also been sent to schools and univer- 
sities in France, England, and Germany, to 



THE HEIR APPARENT. 245 

learn as much as it is possible to prevail on 
princes to acquire — moral suasion only being 
possible in such, cases ; the more stringent 
methods adopted with " common people," of 
course, never being dreamed of where " blood 
royal " is concerned. 

I believe the heir apparent, Prince Mohamed^ 
Tewfik, has never enjoyed the advantages of 
mforeign travel, nor a foreign criculum, but has 
been brought np and educated at home. Yet he 
does credit to his teachers, both as to mind and 
manners, being one of the most modest and at 
the same time one of the best-informed young 
men to be met with anywhere ; universally re- 
spected as well as liked by foreigners as well as 
natives : though he shrinks from rather than 
courts observation or society. Whether this 
proceeds from native modesty or from policy, the 
position he occupies being a more delicate and 
difficult one in the East than elsewhere, I am 
not sufficiently intimate with him to say ; but 
my impression, formed from my own oppor- 
tunities of observation, was that the former 
cause had as much to do with it as the latter. 
Yet his modesty and retiring manner by no 
means indicate a lack either of will or of firm- 
ness ; on the contrary, I should judge he was 
naturally obstinate, and very hard to move from 
the path he had selected, either by persuasion or 



246 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

threats. Less politic and plausible than his 
father. Prince Tewfik impresses you with belief 
in his sincerity, and that he means what he says 
— qualities which very clever men often are de- 
ficient in. He does not affect so much of the 
Western air and habits as do his father and two 
brothers, although he wears the Stambouli 
costume ; and is reputed to be a conscientious 
though liberal Mussulman in creed and practice. 
His private character is above reproach. In the 
great whispering gallery of that Court, and of 
the Prank community at Cairo, I have never 
heard a whisper breathed against his domestic 
virtues or private character. In short, if I were 
asked to point out the model gentleman among 
the younger native generation at Cairo (in the 
higher sense of that much-abused word), I 
should select Prince Tewfik as one of its most 
superior types ; although in the graces, and in 
the social circle, one of his brothers may 
surpass him. 

Prnice Tewfik is decidedly Oriental, both in 
face and figure; of the Circassian, type, with 
square head, heavy frame, dark eyes and hair, 
and with something solid and substantial 
stamped bodily and mentally upon him. Devoid 
apparently of some of the more shining qualities, 
slow and even hesitating in speech, and not 
affecting brilliancy or even smartness his face, 



PRINCE HUSSEIN. 247 

eye, and smile inspire confidence. Yon feel 
that here is a man whom yon can trust. 

He is the husband of but one wife, and re- 
ported to be very domestic in his habits and 
tastes. He is Minister of the Interior, and said 
to be an energetic and indefatigable public 
officer. Should it be his fate to mount the 
throne of Egypt, I predict that he will prove a 
prudent, humane, and sensible ruler, and do 
credit to himself and good to his people ; 
although I have seen such strange and sudden 
transformations take place in Egyptian princes 
after becoming viceroys, that my prediction is 
made with some hesitation. 

The next eldest son is the Prince Hussein, at 
present Minister of Finance , vice the late Mouf- 
fetich, departed. He, in appearance, manners, 
and character, is the reverse of his elder brother. 
Slight and wiry of frame, with an active and 
springy step and quick movements, with sharp, 
shrewd features and restless eye, Prince Hus- 
sein is a man who impresses you as well fitted 
for intrigue ; with boldness enough to carry out 
what he had planned without regard to the con- 
sequences. He seems to have inherited much 
of his father's restless spirit, without the caution 
which has ever accompanied it in Ms progenitor ; 
and is certainly a quick, clever young man, 
though he does not impress you, with all his 



248 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

boldness, as being as open-hearted and sincere 
as bis brother Tewfik. Although, I believe, he 
has never visited Europe, he is quite French in 
his dress and address, and figures in the quad- 
rilles and even the waltz at the royal balls, 
with the grace of a practised man about town. 
In fact, he is quite French in appearance, and 
can rattle off calembours as fast as any petit 
creve of the boulevards. He is also said to be an 
extremely good business man, in so far as he is 
allowed to exert that ability — the Khedive being 
king and all the ministers echoes, since the death 
of the Mouffetich, the only one among them to 
whom he gave more than the shadow of power, 
after Nubar Pacha (who refused to be a shadow) 
got his conge. The young prince has no pleasant 
position, being compelled to act as a financial 
"buffer" between the irate creditors of the 
Government or the Khedive, and his father. 
The latter (who is by no means so visible nowa- 
days as he used to be) is ingenious enough to 
put much of the burden of "to-morrow and to- 
morrow," sung to the creditors, on his son, 
whose nominal duties as Finance Minister are 
really performed by the foreign commissioners, 
Messrs. Eomaine and De Malaret, one of whom 
receives, and the other of whom disburses, all 
of the hard cash to be collected in Egypt. 

If Prince Hussein resembles a Frenchman, 



PEINCE HASSAN. 249 

his brother Hassan, late Minister of War, and 
now in command of the Egyptian contingent in 
Turkey, is more like a German in appearance 
and address ; his manner of pronouncing Eng- 
lish, which he understands, having been some 
time at Oxford University, being decidedly 
German. The same may be said of his manner, 
which is short and abrupt, though he has enjoyed 
greater advantages than his brothers. Of his 
capacity, either civil or military, he has as yet 
given no proofs. He may show the stuff he is 
made of, in his present position. 

The mystery which still enshrouds the Abys- 
sinian campaign, in which he participated, veils 
also the part he played therein, the accounts of. 
which are very conflicting, and by no means 
confirmatory of the florid accounts given in the 
despatches of the Egyptian generalissimo, Eatib 
Pacha, who is generally believed to have imi- 
tated Falstaff more than Hotspur in his conduct 
of that most unfortunate and fruitless campaign. 
The prince has now an opportunity of winning 
his spurs if he pleases, for if he goes to the 
front he will have to show the mettle he is 
made of, against the hereditary enemy of his 
xace. 

His duties as War Minister were chiefly 
nominal; the real management of that depart- 
ment, for the last six or seven years, having 



250 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

been in the hands of the American staff officers, 
at the head of whom is General Stone (now 
Stone Pacha Eerik), and General Loring (Loring 
Pacha Eerik), who has had a separate command 
at Alexandria, covering the protection of that 
place, and the line of sea-coast from Alexandria 
to Port Sai'd. 

These old and experienced soldiers, military 
men by early training and participation in 
bloody wars on the other side of the Atlantic, 
aided by a picked corps of younger officers, chiefly 
Americans, have brought the Egyptian army 
into a fine state of organization and discipline, 
and made the coast fortifications very strong 
and effective against any fleet or force seeking 
to invade Egypt — a contingency happily not 
likely to occur during the present war, if the 
solemn assurances of Prussian diplomacy are to 
be relied upon ; but against which, nevertheless, 
the Khedive is and has long been preparing his 
fcroops and defences. 

Three or four other younger sons of the 
Khedive are being as carefully trained and edu- 
cated as their elder brothers. I believe most of 
the brethren are by different mothers, but the 
Khedive is certainly a good father, however 
miscellaneous his taste in the matter of mothers. 

His daughters he has married chiefly to their 
cousins, richly endowing them all, and insisting 



HALIM PACHA. 251 

that their husbands shall have no other legal 
wives — the Mussulman law allowing four at a 
time to all "true believers;" a privilege of 
which the Khedive has fully availed himself, 
and probably deprecates for his sons and sons-in- 
law, from the fruits of his own experience. 

One of his daughters married Toussoun Pacha, 
the only son of his predecessor Said, to whom 
Ismail behaved well and generously, making 
him Minister of Public Instruction, and furnish- 
ing him liberally with lands and money. He 
died about a year ago, much regretted for his 
amiability and generosity of character, in which 
he resembled his father, without possessing his 
stronger qualities. The son of Abbas also 
died young at Constantinople. Mustafa, the 
Khedive's brother, who was set aside from the 
succession by the new firman from the Porte, is 
also dead, and his family were sent for to 
Constantinople, and treated in a most princely 
manner by the Khedive. But Halim Pacha, 
the younger son of Mehemet Ali and uncle to 
Ismail, still lives, and casts a shadow over the 
succession of Tewfik, to secure which his claims 
under the original firman granted Mehemet 
Ali were set aside by the late Sultan Abdul- 
Aziz. Halim, like Mustafa, has been kept at 
Constantinople, where both were in high favour, 
and given high positions in the Government, as 



252 THE KHEDIVE'S EGPYT. 

a rod in terrorem for trie Khedive and his sons, 
should they prove refractory, or stint the supplies 
of backsheesh, which every " Commander of the 
Faithful " has an undying thirst for, unquenched 
and unquenchable by any millions however 
often repeated. How much of the gold ex- 
tracted from the sweat and blood of Egypt, or 
from the pockets of the foreign credi to or 
bondholder, has passed into the capacious maw 
of the ogre at Constantinople, during the last 
twelve years, while these two princes of the 
blood were held as hostages and rods at Stam- 
boul, no one knows save one man, and he doubt- 
less will never divulge it. But certain it is that 
many millions of pounds annually have been 
sent there, as sops to the Cerberus, for favours 
granted in return, or preservation of the 
statu quo. 

Mustafa Pacha was a great political in- 
triguer, and probably played his part in these 
proceedings ; but the bold frank character of 
Halim Pacha frees him from similar imputa- 
tions. Personally he is one of the most remark- 
able men of his line, prolific as it ever has been 
of strong men and original ones. 

Born of a Bedouin mother, the wife of 
Mehemet Ali's vigorous old age, Prince Halhn 
partakes of the peculiarities of his mother's race, 
being originally spare and wiry in frame and 



HIS HOME AT SHOUBEA. 253 

muscle, lithe as a leopard, a hunter like Nirnrod, 
a horseman unequalled even among his mother's 
centaur-like race, with quick flashing eyes and 
sharp features, dark eyes and hair, and Arab 
complexion. He has grown stouter and heavier 
since residing at Constantinople, but his original 
type was such as I have described. He was an 
excellent French scholar, and a man of consider- 
able culture, as well as vivacity ; extremely 
hospitable, and fond of entertaining his Frank 
friends at his palace at the Shoubra Gardens, left 
him by his father as an inheritance, but which 
has now become the property of the Khedive, 
who has suffered the palace to fall into ruins, 
and the gardens to go to decay. Here Halim 
Pacha used to rive and enjoy life, until quarrels 
between himself and the Khedive drove him out 
of Egypt, and caused him to sell out his 
property there to the Khedive, for which one of 
the outstanding loans was issued. I am not 
aware that Halim has, in any manner, formally re- 
nounced his pretensions to the Egyptian throne 
under the original firman ; neither do I know 
whether he still cherishes hopes in that regard, 
for I have not seen him for many years past. 
He was in London recently for a short time, and 
it was then whispered that he might possibly 
have been sent or have come on a political 
mission, relative to the Egyptian succession. 



254 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

I imagine however that the general acquies- 
cence of the Great Powers to the change of the 
succession, informal as it may have been, will 
prove a bar to the claims of Prince Halim, even 
should he strive to press them : and that the 
accession of Prince Tewfik is as safe as any 
political possibility can be. 

Of the narrow escape of Prince Halim from 
death, through his own quickness and presence 
of mind, when his nephew Achmet was drowned 
in the Nile, I have already spoken; and shall 
conclude this sketch of him with a detail of the 
manner in which he used to practise his favourite 
sport, in chasing the gazelle with hawk and 
hound over the desert. 

Although the fleetness of the Arab horse and 
Syrian greyhound are proverbial, and seem capa- 
ble of outstripping anything but the wind, yet, 
fleet ,as are its pursuers, the gazelle is fleeter still; 
and hence the revival on these Eastern plains of 
the mediaeval pastime and "joyous science" of 
hawking ; bringing the children of the air in aid 
of hunter, horse, and hound, and assailing the 
helpless quarry from earth and sky at once. 

It was a gay sight to see this Eastern knight 
on his fleet Arab courser, attended by a princely 
retinue of friends and followers (but " no lady 
fair," which Eastern etiquette forbade), sally forth 
at early dawn from his residence in the famed 



HUNTING THE GAZELLE. 255 

gardens of Shoubra, with hawk on fist, and the 
Syrian greyhounds in leash, led after him, only to 
be unleashed when the quarry was raised on the 
desert, a few miles distant. 

The Prince himself, usually attired in French 
costume — for he is an educated man, and very 
French in his tastes — on these occasions wore 
the native dress ; and his suite, with their gay 
and picturesque costumes, and costly trappings 
bedecked with gems and cloth of gold, presented 
a most gallant and striking appearance ; for 
among these semi-civilized nomads of Egypt 
and Syria, the passion for the chase is only second 
to that for war, the children of Nirnrod and of 
Ishmael retaining still the tastes of their remote 
progenitors. 

The Syrian greyhound is a very beautiful 
specimen of the race. Smaller and with less 
length of lirnb than the English greyhound, 
and consequently with a shorter stride, the 
rapidity of his movements, and the toughness 
and tenacity of his muscles, render him no un- 
worthy scion of the stock to which his British 
cousin belongs. Moreover his long feathery- 
tufted tail seems to act as a rudder to him, when 
in full flight across those breezy plains — for a 
strong wind is ever blowing over the desert — 
an advantage which marks the difference be- 
tween the Syrian and other grejmounds, to 



256 the khedive's egypt. 

whom, in other respects, lie bears the closest 
affinity. In the eyes and faces of the choicest 
specimens of these dogs, there shines an expres- 
sion of winning and almost human intelligence; 
yet, once launched in pursuit of game, they are as 
blood-thirsty as the sleuth-hound. The dog in 
Egypt, as throughout the East, with this excep- 
tion is a homeless and houseless vagabond and 
semi-savage, prowling in packs, acting as scaven • 
ger only, and never domesticated, because con- 
sidered " unclean " by Mussulman law and 
custom. The Prince Halim had the courage to 
brave this prejudice, and kept his greyhounds 
for the chase. But he also kept another and 
more curious class of creatures for the hunting 
of the gazelle, probably the fastest in its move- 
ments of any wingless animal, viz., his hunting 
hawks, which seemed the genuine descendants 
of the " falcon gentle," which was wont to afford 
such rare sport to our ancestors in the Middle 
Ages. As the cavalcade pranced forth from the 
gates of the city, and especially from the old 
Bab el Nasr, or " Gate of Victory," which 
leads to the desert — past those beautiful but 
crumbling castellated memorials, the tombs and 
palaces of the Memlook sultans, now falling into 
ruins — the hooded hawks, perched on the right 
hands of the prince and his friends, constituted 
a curious feature of the knightly retinue. 



THE "FALCON GENTLE" OF EGYPT. 257 

The hawk used for this purpose is not the 
ordinary large Egyptian one, which hovers over 
the city of Cairo, poised in air on its wide 
wings, or circling around in search of its quarry ; 
but a smaller and fiercer bird, desert born and 
bred, with keen eyes and sharp talons, of whinh 
the larger brother stands in wholesome awe. 
These birds, trained much as were the mediaeval 
falcons, seem to love the chase as much as their 
master, although their quarry be not the heron, 
but the gazelle. Their services were only 
brought into requisition after the chase had 
continued some time, and as an adjunct to the 
pursuit of men, dogs, and horses, all concen- 
trating their energies against the life and liberty 
of the most lovely, graceful, and inoffensive of 
wild creatures, almost the sole tenants of these 
arid wastes. 

After advancing a few miles into the desert, 
which presents one flat, dead, unbroken level of 
hard gritty soil (not sand), unrelieved by any 
shrub, grass, flower, or tree, bounded only by the 
horizon, and producing almost the illusion of a 
sea view, suddenly half a dozen slender shapely 
forms spring up, and stand in bold relief against 
the sky, with heads erect like statuary, some half 
mile distant. 

The sight seems at once to infuse new fire 
and vigour into the horses, dogs, and men, all 



258 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

of whom are immediately launched like thunder- 
bolts in the direction of the quarry, which 
pausing motionless for a moment, break into 
full flight the next, bounding marvellous dis- 
tances each spring, and soon leaving even the 
fleet greyhounds toiling hopelessly in the rear : 
the distance between them visibly increasing, 
as the tireless gazelles almost fly forwards, in- 
spired by fear. The scene now becomes a most 
animated, exciting, and picturesque one, with 
the floating burnouses of the Bedouin or Egyp- 
tian riders, and the gay attire of horse and man, 
and the gallant Arab coursers stretching out 
to full speed, with expanded nostrils and pro- 
truding eyes, and the feathery tails of the 
Syrian greyhounds waving like banners, as they 
bound after the flying gazelles. 

But vain are the efforts of all their enemies 
to gain upon, or even to keep pace with, the 
graceful children of the desert. Horses, men, 
and dogs are falling rapidly behind : and even the 
forms of the gazelles are becoming indistinct 
and with difficulty discernible, except to the 
eagle eyes of the prince and his Bedouins, when 
a new ally is summoned to the assistance of the 
hunters, and a new foe launched at the heads 
of the triumphant fugitives. 

Rising in his shovel- stirrups, in full career, 
with the grace and dexterity of an Eastern rider, 



HAWK AND QUARRY. 259 

Prince Halini, slipping off the hood from the 
head of the hawk he carries on his right hand, 
with a peculiar shrill cry launches the bird into 
the air in the direction of the fast-disappearing 
quarry. Thus released, the hawk circles rapidly 
upward until almost lost to sight, a mere speck 
suspended in blue ether, and seemingly motion- 
less in the cloudless sky, blazing under the fierce 
Eastern sun in a flood of light. A moment 
later, the hawk can be seen shooting downwards 
like a lightning flash on the gazelle, buffeting 
its head and blinding its eyes, with the rapid 
blows of its strong wings. Almost frantic with 
fear and fury, the gazelle soon frees itself from 
its feathered assailant by striking its head upon 
the ground, and then resumes its flight ; but the 
relief is only momentary, for the pertinacious 
assailant as soon as shaken off renews the 
assault; coming down on the antelope's head 
again and again, releasing it only long enough 
to avoid being crushed or impaled upon its sharp 
brow horns. Blinded at last and wearied by these 
attacks, confused by the cries of the approach- 
ing huntsmen, the terrified and exhausted gazelle 
falls an easy prey to the greyhounds and pur- 
suing horsemen. 

Sometimes a young or badly trained bird 
would fall a victim to his interference : for the 
efforts of the gazelle to destroy as well as shako 






260 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

off his tormentors, inspired by the instinct of 
self-preservation, are often as energetic as piteous 
to witness. 

The hunt of Prince Halim over, the grey- 
hounds re-leashed, the hawks hooded once more, 
the heads of the panting Arab steeds are again 
turned homewards ; though the desert-horn 
horses, snuffing eagerly their fresh native air, 
seem reluctant to return citywards, fretting and 
chafing under the powerful hit and shovel-spur 
which compel obedience. This bit is strong 
enough to break a horse's jaw, with a cruel, 
sharp iron spike pressing on the tongue, so that 
a rider who sharply reins in his steed in full 
career draws blood, and lacerates the horse's 
tongue. The shovel-shaped stirrup, too, with 
its sharp edges gores the side of the animal, 
when spurred, like a knife ; so that obedience to 
the riser's will is easily enforced by a reckless 
or cruel rider. 

Returning at mid-day through the desert under 
the blazing sun, whose insufferable glare blinds 
and dazzles European vision, and against which 
even Bedouin or Egyptian protects himself by 
the projecting cofia or silk shawl drawn over 
the head and face like a projecting hood, the 
stranger, if fortunate, may witness the strange 
and startling optical delusion of the mirage, so 
often described, yet of which the reality is so 



PRINCE halm's claims. 261 

immeasurably superior to the description. For 
suddenly, out of what was a moment before but 
void space bounded by a distant horizon, seems 
to rise as if by enchantment the semblance 
of stately cities, with domes, mosques, and 
minarets, and long moving processions of men 
and camels ; or, more mocking still to dizzy 
brain and parched palate, the counterfeit pre- 
sentment of clear pools of water, embowered in 
shady palm groves. The Turkish bath, the mid- 
day siesta preceded by chibouque or nargileh 
of Latikia or Persian tumbac, constitute the fit 
pendant to the day's chase. 

Such used to be the favourite sport of Prince 
HaHm's youth. He is now a middle-aged man, 
but a year younger than the Khedive, and they 
tell me has grown stout and indolent in the 
enervating ah of Constantinople. 

But as the last surviving son of the great 
founder of the house that has ruled Egypt for 
the last half century, a certain interest attaches 
to him ; to which the future of Egypt, dark with 
clouds, must add a keener edge. For the pre- 
sent it is the policy of the Great Powers to 
preserve the statu quo in Egypt, and to sanction 

the change of succession. 

M2 



262 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 



CHAPTEE XV. 

IRRIGATION AND THE BARRAGE. 

" The life of Egypt " — The barrage — Proposition to pull down the 
Pyramids to construct it — A French engineer's perilous predicament 
— How he extricated himself — Said Pacha's new city on a medal ! — 
Egyptian irrigation — How it is managed — Proposed substitute for 
the irrigation of the Delta — Something about the barrage. 

In former days, before there was railway com- 
munication with Cairo, little more than twenty 
years ago, the traveller who ascended the Nile 
in a dababieh or small steamer used to be 
struck by the sight of what seemed at once a 
turreted castle, a bridge, and a breakwater across 
the stream. This was the barrage, commenced 
by Mehemet Ah, continued by Abbas fitfully, 
and abandoned by Said; although at one time 
he conceived the idea of completing this great 
work, on which both Mougel and Linant Beys, 
the Franco-Egyptian engineers, spent much 
time and labour, and to which, I was told, about 
three millions of pounds sterling had been con- 
tributed. Said was so full of the idea that he 



THE BAEEAGE AND THE PYRAMIDS. 263 

actually founded a city there, gave a three days' 
fete on the spot, and struck of! a silver medal to 
commemorate it ; but the city stopped there, 
and so did the works. 

A curious story was told me by one of the 
French engineers, in connection with the barrage 
and Abbas Pacha. Summoned by the viceroy 
to one of his desert palaces hurriedly, the 
engineer repaired with all speed to see him. 
He was at once greeted with this suggestion : — 

"You are always troubling me about your 
barrage," said Abbas, " and an idea has struck 
me. Those great masses of stone, the Pyramids, 
are standing there useless. Why not take the 
stone from them to do the work ? Is it not a 
good idea ? " 

" Pull down the Pyramids ! " stammered the 
amazed engineer, aghast at the idea that his 
name would go down to posterity in such a 
connection. 

"Yes," impatiently repeated Abbas. "Why 
not ? Are you silly enough to attach any rever- 
ence to those ugly, useless piles of stone ! See 
if you cannot make use of them for the barrage. 
They have helped to build Cairo already." 

The Frenchman made his salaam and retired 
in despair. What was he to do ? The obstinacy 
of Abbas was ever proof against argument, and 
he brooked no contradiction to his will, however 



264 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

extravagant the whim that prompted it. To 
refuse to carry out his orders would be equiva- 
lent to losing his place ; to obey would, to his 
excited imagination, stamp his name with an 
immortality of infamy, as the destroyer of the 
Pyramids. 

Tossing restlessly on his sleepless bed all 
night, a bright idea flashed upon him. He 
would appeal to Abbas's avarice, to escape the 
desecration of the great historic monuments of 
Egypt. Taking a large sheet of paper, he 
covered it over with long rows of figures and 
calculations, and armed with this, returned to 
the viceroy the next day. 

" What is all this ? " growled Abbas, glancing 
suspiciously at the sheet covered with what to 
him were cabalistic figures, and frowning darkly 
on the engineer. " What rubbish is this you 
bring me ? " 

" Highness ! " was the reply, " after re- 
ceiving your orders to remove the stones from 
the Pyramids for the barrage, I deemed it my 
duty to make a rough calculation of the cost; 
and here it is." 

"Well, well," said Abbas impatiently, "what 
do I know about your hieroglyphics ? Tell me, 
what will it cost ? " 

The engineer immediately named an enormous 
sum for the cost of taking down and transporting 



A NARROW ESCAPE. ^(55 

the stones ; and after some severe cross-question- 
ing from the viceroy, who seemed suspicious of 
his good faith, finally persuaded him to abandon 
the design of pulling down the Pyramids — 
sooner than aid in doing which, he swore to me, 
he would have resigned and left the service. 

" Figurez vous, monsieur!" he said, with 
flushed face, and eyes almost starting from their 
sockets, as he recalled the recollection. " Fancy 
your own feelings, at the thought that your 
own children would be pointed out everywhere 
as those of the man who destroyed the Pyramids ! " 
and his hair bristled on his head with horror, at 
the thought of the peril he, and his children (he 
had none, by-the-by), had so narrowly escaped. 

The Nile has often and truly been called 
" the life of Egypt," for the fertility of the soil 
is derived from its deposits and irrigation. The 
barrage was intended to irrigate the whole 
Delta, and the design certainly was a grand one. 
I am too ignorant of engineering, to express any 
opinion as to the possibility of achieving the 
purpose aimed at by such a breakwater : or 
the reasons of the failure and abandonment of 
the uncompleted work, in relation to which I 
know the Khedive has lately consulted several 
eminent English engineers. 

The following particulars as to the great and 
vital topic of irrigation in Egypt, and incident- 



266 



THE KHEDIVE S EGYPT. 



ally as to the barrage, I have procured from 
persons competent to give it, from long and 
careful study of both subjects. The whole 
matter is more simple than it seems ; the chief 
question to be considered is the question of cost. 

I believe it is estimated that £1,500,000 would 
put the barrage in successful operation. 

As already stated, the whole cultivated area 
of Egypt owes its fertility to the Nile inunda- 
tion. At high Nile the water is heavily charged 
with sedimentary matters, and these matters are 
deposited as the velocity of the flood-stream 
slackens ; and so the bed of the river and the 
submerged lands on either side of it have been 
gradually raised. If the river were not carefully 
embanked, the lands immediately contiguous to 
the stream would be flooded to a depth of about 
three feet at ordinary high .Nile, whilst those 
more remote from the river would be submerged 
to as much as three times that depth. These 
conditions are obviously all that could be desired 
for the effective irrigation of this country during 
high Nile, since it would only be necessary to 
lead canals from the river to the land to be 
irrigated, controlling the flow of water in the 
canals by sluices or barrages, formed at their 
intakes. But at low Nile the level of water in 
the river is some twenty feet below the surface 
of the land, so other means have to be adopted 



METHODS OF IRRIGATION. 267 

to irrigate during summer. Three courses are 
open for adoption : — 

1st. To raise the water to the required level 
by pumping or other mechanical means. 

2nd. To tap the river at some point upstream, 
and lead off a canal at a flatter fall than that of 
the river, so that at the required place the water 
will have attained the surface. 

3rd. To dam up the waters of the Nile itself 
by a great weir, or barrage. 

The first course is that chiefly adopted in 
Egypt : and the well-known shadoofs, sakiehs, and 
natalahs are the mechanical means most in vogue, 
though Cornish pumping- engines and centrifugal 
pumps are also common enough. The second plan 
of high-level canals is ill-adapted to the condi- 
tions in Egypt, because of the small fall of the 
land. Thus, the Nile valley falls at the rate of 
five inches per mile; hence, since the inclination 
of the canal could hardly be less than one inch 
and a half per mile, it would require a length of 
nearly seventy miles of canal before the water 
would have attained a sufficient height, relative 
to the adjoining land, to irrigate without pump- 
ing. Canals of this length and of the required 
capacity would cost many millions, and even 
then would do the work far less effectually than 
a barrage. It is no matter of surprise, therefore, 
that the advisability of constructing a barrage 



268 



TEE KHEDIVE S EGYPT. 



across the Nile at trie head of trie Delta was 
seen at a very early period ; and that the work 
itself was undertaken by Mehemet Ah in the 
year 1847. 

The barrage of the Nile is, perhaps, the 
most imposing engineering work to be found 
in Egypt ; but unfortunately, from a variety of 
causes, it has not satisfied the anticipations of 
its projectors. From instability of foundations 
it has not succeeded in damming up the waters 
more than some five feet, whereas at least fifteen 
feet is required to do the work of irrigation 
effectually. The barrage across the Eosetta 
branch is 1525 feet in length, and includes sixty- 
one arches of 16' 4" span, and two locks of the 
respective widths of forty and fifty feet ; the 
whole work presenting much the appearance of a 
railway viaduct of brickwork, with stone dress- 
ings. . The Damietta barrage is 1787 feet long, 
with arches and locks of the same dimensions 
as in the other barrage. A large iron sluice- 
gate was to have been fitted in each archway, 
which when lowered would dam the waters 
back to a height of fifteen feet above low Nile 
level, and when raised would have allowed the 
floods to pass down unimpeded. Owing to the 
defect in the foundations, these sluices have not 
yet been furnished to the whole of the barrage ; 
but temporary means are adopted for closing 



MR. fowler's plan. 269 

some of the arches during low Nile, and so 
slightly raising the level of the river above the 
barrage. The loss from the non-completion of 
the barrage works, and the consequent defective 
and costly irrigation of the Delta, is measured 
by many hundreds of thousands of pounds. Irri- 
gation, which in India costs only a few shillings, 
in Egypt costs as many pounds ; and the difference 
is almost wholly owing to the incompleteness of 
the irrigation works, amongst which the barrage 
is of pre-eminent importance. It is satisfactory 
to learn, therefore, that the completion of the 
barrage is seriously entertained by the Khedive, 
and that the whole question has been elaborately 
studied by Mr. John Fowler, his consulting 
engineer. Mr. Fowler, availing himself of the 
progress in engineering science since the period 
when the present barrage was commenced, pro- 
poses to put the foundations of his new works at a 
depth below the surface of the water which would 
have been impracticable thirty years ago ; and so 
he will attain sufficient stability to dam the 
waters back to a height of fifteen feet, as origin- 
ally intended, and as is necessary for the satis- 
factory irrigation of the Delta, without pumping. 
So stands this matter of irrigation at present, 
Doubtless engineering skill, which has worked 
so many marvels, can dam up even the flood of 
Father Nile, and control its distribution ; and 



270 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

former failure is no argument against final suc- 
cess, under the circumstances attending the 
experiment thus far. So that if the thing be 
really feasible and necessary, and will repay the 
cost — all of which are questions for engineers to 
solve — the completion of the barrage is now as 
certain as the perpetuity of the Pyramids. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

EDUCATION IN EGYPT. 

What the Khedive has done in educating his people — The public 
schools — Their chief inspector, Dor Bey — Information derived from 
him — Slight sketch of the character and purposes of the new schools, 
civil and military — The Polytechnic School at Abbassieh — The 
Missionary schools — Miss "Whately's school, and the German — 
Education for women — A queen worthy of her place — The c.oming 
race of Egyptian women. 

Fully to relate all that the Khedive has done for 
education would require a volume instead of a 
chapter ; for his efforts in this direction are 
worthy of all praise : so much has he already 
accomplished within the last six or eight years. 
A volume has been written on the subject, and 
published by the Government, prepared by Dor 
Bey, the able controller and chief inspector 
of the public schools, giving full and accurate 
information and details on this most interesting 
topic. This gentleman was summoned by the 
Khedive from Switzerland, where he was per- 
forming similar functions, and is assisted in his 



272 



THE KBEPJVE'S EGYPT. 



duties by Mr. Rogers, formerly British consul 
at Cairo, but now in the Egyptian service. 

From Mr. Dor's statements I shall merely 
extract a few of the most salient features of the 
new plan of regenerating Egypt, by educating 
and enlightening the rising generation — an Her- 
culean task indeed, when the peculiarities of 
place and people are taken into consideration. 
The system is not to make education compulsory 
(which seems to me a mistake), and the advan- 
tages it offers have been confined thus far to the 
cities, and have not yet been generally extended 
into the country, where the rural population, who 
need it most, might avail themselves of the 
benefits of instruction, in something more than 
the Koran, free of cost. For the Arab child is 
remarkably bright and intelligent, and loves 
learning, when there is any possible chance of 
his acquiring it. Mehemet Ah made some 
attempt at such schools, as did also Abbas Pacha 
and Said ; but the merit of greatly enlarging and 
perfecting them undoubtedly belongs to Khedive 
Ismail, who has summoned able men from 
abroad to assist him in the good work. 

At some of the schools I visited I was struck 
by the quickness of the boys, and their memories 
seemed surprising, as well as their genius for 
mathematics and arithmetic. Standing before a 
black board with a piece of chalk, the pupils 



THE POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL AT ABBASSIEH. 273 

would write down rapidly and correctly, sentences 
dictated to them in different languages. Men of 
all ages are admitted to prepare for teachers : 
some very mature ones I saw hard at work, 
grappling with school-boy tasks, with an iron 
gravity nothing could disturb. The colour of 
the pupils is as widely various as their types of 
face ; but I saw very few negroes among them. 

Ophthalmia, the terrible scourge of Egypt, had 
left its mark on many of the boys; but I was 
happy to hear that the virulence of this disease 
was abating under the new regime. 

At the military training school at Abbassieh, 
where the number of pupils between the ages of 
sixteen and twenty was considerable, every 
possible appliance for instruction, both mental 
and bodily, was to be seen; and some of the 
fencing I saw, both with foil and broad-sword, 
would have done credit to the professors of the 
art anywhere in Europe. Major Soliman Bey, 
an Egyptian educated at Paris and Metz, was 
at the head of the Polytechnic School of the 
Abbassieh, formerly the site of one of Abbas' 
desert palaces, near Cairo. Mr. Bourke, a 
gentleman of high culture and intelligence, was 
the English professor; with two able professors 
of French and German as his colleagues. 

One of the largest and most famous schools in 
the East, under Mahommedan auspices, has long 



274 THB KHEDIVE'S EaYPT. 

been in operation at Cairo, at the mosque of El 
Akhsar ; but the course is chiefly if not entirely 
theological, comprising lessons from and instruc- 
tion in the Koran. All the mosques also have 
schools attached to them, where squat the 
youthful Arabs, shrieking out in Arabic at the 
top of their voices, all at the same time : and 
swinging to and fro as they shout, in chorus 
with their Arab instructor. These schools are 
not supported by Government endowment, but 
by the payment of a trifling sum from parents 
who can afford it. The Government, however, is 
helping these to better teachers, trained at its 
own normal schools and the course of instruction 
is being enlarged. 

The public schools are composed of primary 
and Government schools. The primary schools 
have a course which extends over four years, and 
all w{io like to come, of whatever race or religion, 
are freely admitted, either as boarders or day 
scholars. The boarders who are able pay <£26 
per year ; those who can pay a part only do so ; 
the poor pay nothing. 4 The same is the case with 
the day scholars. 

The non-paying pupils however are subject to 
the call of the Government, which passes them 
on through the other schools, and prepares them 
for public service ; and many are made teachers 
in the primary schools, besides being trained as 



THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLS. 275 

doctors, engineers, surveyors, etc. There are 
also preparatory schools midway between the 
two classes above referred to. 

The Government schools (so called) are of 
a special character, such as for medicine, the 
higher mechanics, and a polytechnic school for 
training officers of the army. Although so 
recently established, they have already laid the 
foundations for an admirable local education, 
and for the improved standard of the next 
generation of Egyptian youth. 

As an indication of educational progress, the 
recent rapid advance of the American missionary 
schools may be cited. For nine years under 
previous reigns, a small but untiring body of 
these men, domiciled in Egypt, strove to get 
pupils, and only succeeded on a most hmited 
scale; but their recent advance in this regard, 
within the last five years, has been wonderful. 
They are now erecting, opposite the old Shep- 
heard's Hotel, an extensive edifice in stone, 
which will comprise a church in the centre and 
two wings, one for a male, and the other for a 
female college, capable each of containing several 
hundreds of students. The building, it is esti- 
mated, will cost £15,000 when completed, and 
will contain residences for the missionaries also. 

From a statement made by these missionaries, 
they claim within the last twenty years to have 



276 



THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 



" gathered a community of 3000 souls ; to have 
established fifteen churches, with an aggregate 
membership of 600 ; and to have sold and distri- 
buted over 10,000 volumes of religious books and 
tracts in 1874." Their centres of operation are 
at Alexandria, Cairo, Mansoura, taking three 
angles of the Delta; the Fayoum in Middle 
Egypt, and Assiout in Upper Egypt. They 
number seventeen missionaries (ten male and 
seven female), twelve native evangelists, sixty- 
three native trained teachers, male and female, 
and a corps of native colporteurs. They have 
in active operation eighteen boys' schools and 
nine for girls, some of them boarding-schools ; 
attended by Moslem as well as native Christian 
children, whose parents now permit them to 
attend to receive the benefits of education, if 
not of religious training. The Khedive has 
liberally assisted this work. He has not only 
exchanged for their old mission site on the 
Mooskie a most valuable lot near Shepheard's 
Hotel, but added £7000 in cash, with which 
the building has been commenced, and dona- 
tions from other sources have raised that sum 
to nearly £9000 ; so that he may, in fact, be 
considered one of the founders of these schools, 
which are intended to instruct the children of 
Moslems as well as Christians. • 

The English chapel is also approaching com- 



miss whately's schqol. 277 

pletion, but on a much smaller scale : and not 
combined with educational purposes. The 
Khedive also gave the lot for the erection of 
that building, and a large and valuable one it 
is. In religious toleration this Moslem prince 
sets an example to some well-known Christian 
rulers and statesmen, who make religious opinions 
a test of good citizenship, and who 

" Fight like devils for conciliation, 
And hate each other for the love of God." 

The indefatigable Miss Whately, daughter of 
the late Archbishop of Dublin, is devoting her life 
and energies to the work of educating the female 
fellahs, with a disinterestedness as rare as it is 
noble. Her school will be her monument, when 
her life and labours are over; for England can 
boast of few such women. She has given more 
than money to this work of charity — the treasures 
of her youth, the comforts of a home, the society 
of friends and kindred. She may be termed the 
Florence Nightingale of peace. Others have 
sentimentalized over the fellahs, she has come 
down to their level, in order to bring their 
children up to hers. Luckier than most of the 
self-sacrificing sisterhood, she and her work are 
rightly appreciated both by Christian and Mos- 
lem : and by none more so than by the Khedive 

himself. 

N 



278 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

The German church. — the ground for which 
was also a gift from the Khedive — has been 
completed, and has a large school attached to 
it ; hut, I think, confines its instruction to the 
children of European parents. 

I believe that very little is attempted or 
accomplished as to the conversion or religious 
instruction of Mussulman children; the so- 
called "converts" being chiefly seceders from 
the Coptic Church, which bitterly resents the 
interference of what it considers " latter-day " 
Christians, as compared to themselves. 

During my experience in Egypt, most if not 
all the troubles and difficulties experienced by 
the missionaries in the upper country came 
from this quarter, and not from the Mussul- 
man Government or people. 

My friend Mr. Lansing, the able and zealous 
head of the American missionaries in Egypt for 
the last twenty years, I am sure will confirm 
this statement, having often frankly admitted 
the fact to me. 

But the greatest innovation is the attempt to 
educate the native women which, under the 
auspices of one of the Eiiedive's wives, has 
been attempted on a considerable scale : and 
with very remarkable success thus far. Miss 
"Whately and the American missionaries had 
been making a similar attempt previously, but 



THE FIRST NATIVE WOMAN'S SCHOOL. 279 

the natural dread of the ignorant and fanatical 
natives, that the religious faith of their children 
would be tampered with by Christian teachers, 
restricted the benefit of their efforts chiefly to 
the children, male and female, of the native 
Christians ; and many of these, through jealousy 
of the foreign teachers, would not patronize these 
schools. But when the wife of the Khedive 
took the matter in hand, it was a very different 
thing ; for royal patronage goes as far in Egypt, 
as in more enlightened countries. But two 
years have elapsed since the Khedive allowed 
his third wife (I think) to make use of one of 
his numerous palaces for the purpose, of which 
he approved ; and after preparations for the re- 
ception and comfort of pupils, and engagement 
of a staff of teachers, the mothers in Egypt of 
every class were invited to send their daughters 
to be lodged, fed, clothed, and educated, free of 
charge. There was a little hesitation at first, so 
startling was the suggestion, so utterly opposed 
to all precedents and Oriental ideas concerning 
womankind and her duties here below. But 
though for three weeks after the opening day 
the benches were empty, within three or four 
months the 300 for whom there was accom- 
modation had filled all the vacant space ; and 
more than double that number were pressing 
their claims for admission. This work is indeed 



280 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

twice blessed — to her who gives and to those 
who receive — and I regret that I do not know 
and cannot commemorate the name of the prin- 
cess, who is godmother to the first native female 
school in Egypt, instituted under native auspices, 
and endowed by native bounty. 

Two years ago the Khedive, in talking to me 
of his plans for the improvement of his people, 
spoke of his educational ideas in reference to 
the female children of his fellahs, who he pro- 
posed to substitute, in domestic duties of the 
household, as servants in place of the slaves; 
who, he declared, were more a necessity on 
account of the want of a class fitted, by training 
and intelligence, to take their places. "For," 
he said, " you know very well we have no such 
class here ; but let the fellah girls be educated, 
and taught the duties of cleanliness and house- 
hold virtues, and we can do away with the 
slaves" who are a great expense and a great 
nuisance." 

The instruction in this school is based partly 
on this idea, and partly on preparations for play- 
ing the higher part of mistress of the household ; 
for five days in the week are devoted to instruc- 
tion in household duties and needlework, and 
but two to intellectual culture. The entire 
course covers a term of five years. The girls 
are of all castes, colours, religions, and races, 



THE COMING EACE. 281 

even including negro slaves. French is the 
foreign language taught, and of course then- 
own. The intelligence and quickness of the 
girls is even greater than that of the male por- 
tion of the population. With education they 
will make good wives and mothers, as well as 
good household servants ; and the name of the 
Egyptian queen who has instituted this great 
reform (which must and will prove as the first 
grain of mustard-seed with so imitative a people 
as the Arab), bids fair to go down to posterity 
burdened with the blessings of the male as well 
as the female portion of her people, who will 
enjoy the benefits and blessings of the reform 
she has so well and wisely begun. 



282 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT 



CHAPTEE XVII. 

SKETCHES OF TWO FAMOUS ANGLO-AFRICAN 
EXPLOREES. 

Captain Richard Burton and Gordon Pacha at Cairo — Description of the 
men — Their latest work in Africa — The land of Midian — The 
Soudan — Burton's first appearance in Egypt — Some curious recollec- 
tions — His last visit — What he was then and now — Burton's dis- 
covery — Gordon Pacha's personal characteristics — His proposed 
work in Central Africa. 

It was my good fortune last winter, at Cairo, to 
encounter and enjoy much intimate communion 
with two of the most celebrated of the Anglo- 
African explorers, still in the full vigour of 
mature manhood, and with ardour unquenched 
by the sufferings and perils, through which one 
of them at least has not passed unscathed. 
Captain Eichard Burton and Gordon Pacha 
were both at Shepheard's Hotel during the 
winter; although unfortunately they did not 
meet there, Burton arriving only a few days 
too late to meet his younger colleague in 
adventure and fame. It would have been both 



burton's FIEST APPEARANCE IN EGYPT. 283 

instructive and amusing to have listened to a 
colloquy between these two men, who with the 
sole tie of love of adventure, are in all other 
respects as different as any two men possibly 
can be. Burton is a very old friend of mine ; 
with Gordon Pacha my acquaintance is of recent 
date. 

Many years ago, in the days of Abbas Pacha, 
a young officer in the Indian service came 
mysteriously to Alexandria, secluded himself 
in the gardens of some English friends, and 
diligently studied the language and customs of 
the lower classes of the Arab population. Then 
he as suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. 
Months afterwards there spread a rumour 
throughout Egypt, that an adventurous Frank, 
at the hourly peril of life and limb, had actually 
accompanied the pilgrimage into Mecca, dis- 
guised as a Mussulman, and penetrated even to 
the "holy of holies " in the city of the faithful, 
which no European ever had done before. But 
the story was discredited, and was ranked among 
the "thousand and one" fabulous stories which 
are the modern "Arabian Nights' Entertain- 
ments " in modern Egypt. 

Passing my summer at Cairo in 1854, in 
common with several of the Frank residents 
(very few at that time, and composed chiefly 
of foreign officials, civil engineers, and foreign 



284 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

officers in the viceroy's service), it was my 
custom to dine frequently at Shepheard's Hotel, 
for the sake of society. One evening at dinner 
we remarked a rather dirty-looking native, in 
Arab dress, sitting alone at the opposite end of 
the table, yet eating in Frank fashion; appar- 
ently paying no attention to what was going on 
around him, though we were struck by the 
exceeding brilliancy and intelligence of his eye, 
whenever he looked up. As it was not Shep- 
heard's habit to allow natives, especially those 
of a lower class, to sit at his table d'hote, I 
carelessly questioned him concerning this person ; 
but received only a vague answer, and dropped 
the subject. But when we saw the man several 
days in succession, in the same place, our 
curiosity begun to be excited ; fanned as it was 
by Shepheard's hints, that we would "know 
very soon who that Arab was, and might be 
rather surprised ! " At last, after playing this 
farce for several days, doubtless tired of want 
of companionship and enforced silence, Burton 
(for he it was) dropped the veil, announced his 
real name and character, and astonished us all 
not a little by the announcement, that the 
rumour we had heard and disbelieved was 
founded on truth ; as he had just returned with 
the pilgrims from the (Haj) pilgrimage from 
Mecca. He proved himself a most delightful 



SOME RECOLLECTIONS OF HIM. 285 

arid welcome accession to our little circle in 
the social wilderness of the Cairo of that day, 
and was my guest at my Cairene house for 
some time after : recounting in his own inimi- 
table style, of which his written works convey 
but a faint impression, his strange and startling 
adventures. 

Night after night would we sit together on 
the flat roof of my house, or under the palm 
trees in the garden, smoking our nargilehs 
under the starlit heavens : while he revived his 
daily experiences during that terrible trial, at 
any moment of which detection would have 
been death; and when he left us to prepare 
his story for the public through the press, we 
sorely missed his ready wit and exciting con- 
versation. For he is a most admirable raconteur ; 
and although not averse to the sound of his own 
voice by any means, is an attentive listener, 
and ready to take as well as give in conversation 
— a very rare merit among clever men, whose 
talk is seldom "relieved by occasional flashes of 
silence," as Sidney Smith remarked on one 
occasion of Lord Macaulay's. 

Hence, when the familiar face of Eichard 
Burton, sadder and sterner, and bearing its 
souvenir of past perils in the shape of a deep 
cicatrice on the cheek, again greeted me at the 

old place, and his strong hand grasped mine 

N2 



286 



THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 



again, it was like a resurrection of the olden 
time ; and we took up the thread of our long- 
interrupted intercourse, where we had dropped 
it more than twenty years before. In that 
interval what countries had this, our greatest 
modern traveller, not seen and described, from 
Iceland to Sind, from Central Africa to Salt 
Lake ? and with what strange and diversified 
memories must not that busy brain be filled, 
never given to the world even in the library of 
volumes, in which he has recorded his experi- 
ences in longer and more varied wanderings 
than those of Ulysses, over lands undreamed of 
by that ancient mariner ? 

- I found Burton more changed in his outward 
than in his inner man. Perhaps he was more 
addicted to the utterance of very startling para- 
doxes in his random talk, than formerly : and 
even more fond of shocking people's stereotyped 
prejudices than he used to be ; but his manner 
was less abrupt, and his tolerance of opinions 
opposite his own much greater than in his 
earlier days, when he was apt to be somewhat 
dictatorial. The old charm of his conversation 
was still there, increased by the stores of varied 
information carefully gathered up and retained 
by a most retentive memory. I have encountered 
many clever talkers, in different languages, but 
I really have never met Burton's superior any- 



HIS LAST VISIT. 287 

where, in this respect. Physically he still 
retains the vigour and strength which he 
formerly enjoyed. His arm is like a bar of iron ; 
and he keeps his biceps and other muscles in 
constant training, by habitually carrying in his 
hand an iron cane, which most men would find 
fatiguing in an hour. He does this to keep in 
training for carrying a heavy gun on his explor- 
ations. 

For a long time he was mysterious with his 
intimates, as to the real object of his visit to 
Egypt : not knowing how the Khedive might 
receive or assist in his search for the long-for- 
gotten gold mines of the land of Midian. Three 
days after I left Cairo for Europe, he started for 
the land of Midian, furnished by the Khedive 
with the means of conveyance and necessary 
escort ; and has again startled the world by new 
revelations of new discoveries, more fully to be 
explored and utilized, it is to be hoped, during 
the ensuing winter. 

Where Burton went, and what he saw, has 
been briefly described in a letter from Alexandria 
to a London daily journal, the substance of 
which briefly is, that he went on a friendly 
errand for the Khedive to survey the " land of 
Midian," having informed the monarch of his 
belief that valuable gold mines were to be found 
there. On the eastern coast of the Gulf of 



288 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

Akaba, on the Bed Sea, lies the ancient and 
almost forgotten land of Midian, famed of old 
for its mineral wealth. Thither went Captain 
Burton, a Government frigate and sufficient mili- 
tary escort having been furnished him ; an able 
French mining engineer in the Egyptian service, 
M. Marie, accompanying the expedition. 

The party left Suez on the 21st March last, 
and on the 2nd April arrived at Moilah, a port 
of the Gulf of Akaba, where an Egyptian 
garrison is stationed. The account goes on to 
state : — 

" Thence they took boat to Eynounah Bay, 
at the entrance of the Wady, or Valley of 
Eynounah, a little to the north of Moilah, on 
the eastern side of the gulf. These wadys are 
curious. They are barren rocky places, with no 
possibility of much culture, and yet they all 
bear signs of abundant population in times gone 
by. Large towns, built not of mud, as Arab 
towns so often are, but of solid masonry such as 
the Bomans always used, roads cut in the rock, 
aqueducts five miles long, remains of massive 
fortresses, artificial lakes — all these signs of 
wealth and numbers are reported by Captain 
Burton. According to him the reason of it all 
is not far to seek. The rock is full of mineral 
wealth. Gold and silver they found, and the 
former seems to exist in quantity sufficient to 
repay the labour of acquisition. Quartz and 
chlorites occur with gold in them just as they 
are found in the gold districts of South America. 
The party tested both the rock by crushing and 



THE LAND OF MIDIAN. 289 

the sands of the streams by sifting, and in each 
case with good result. Tin and antimony they 
also discovered, and they had evidence of the 
existence of turquoise mines. Each ruined 
town had its mining works ; dams for the wash- 
ing of sand and crushed rock were frequently 
seen ; scoriae lies about near ancient furnaces ; 
in short, the traces are numerous of a busy 
mining population in a country which seems to 
be full of mineral wealth. From Makna (Mugna 
of the maps), the capital of the land of Midian, 
up to Akaba at the head of the gulf, Captain 
Burton reports the country as auriferous, and he 
beheves the district southwards as far as Gebel 
Hassani — a mountain well known to geographers 
— to possess the same character. He even goes 
so far as to say he has brought back to life an 
ancient California. 

" M. Marie, a skilful mining engineer, also 
speaks with confidence. Of course Captain 
Burton has kept elaborate notes, and he main- 
tains that they will bear out his golden views of 
the land of Midian. In any case they will be 
interesting, as the country is utterly unknown. 
No modern traveller has set foot there ; even 
the map has yet to be made. It will be remem- 
bered that Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh 
and dwelt in the land of Midian, and Jethro, 
the priest of Midian, gave him for wife his 
daughter Zipporah. The Khedive, of course, is 
much interested in the complete success of this 
expedition, and is now very desirous to give 
practical effect to it. He has asked the Foreign 
Office to allow Captain Burton to return next 
winter to assist him in the development of his 
new gold fields, and no man could be better 



290 



THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 



chosen for the task. At the same time the 
Egyptian ruler is fully convinced that all 
schemes of development in his dominions must 
now be subjected to commercial tests. The 
success of the new mines will therefore depend 
on the opinion of European capitalists, and 
whether they find that the reports — which will 
be made in detail — of the results of the expedi- 
tion offer a new field for the investment of 
capital. The Khedive himself will be satisfied 
with the payment of a royalty." 

Physically and mentally, in appearance and 
manner, as well as in character and speech, 
Gordon Pacha is the direct opposite to Captain 
Burton. As habitually sparing of speech as 
Burton is the reverse, and of a shy reserved 
manner, and seeming absence of mind in 
common intercourse out of doors, when in- 
terested or excited, or in the vein with congenial 
companions, he can talk fast and fluently, and 
with great felicity of expression. He appears 
to most advantage when, breaking through his 
usual reticence, he frankly pours out his thoughts 
and feelings to the few whom he honours with his 
confidence. The real mettle of the man is then 
discernible, and the strong undercurrent of a 
singularly suppressed nature sweeps both speaker 
and listener along, on a tide of most animated 
and earnest talk : in which he seems to unburden 
his whole mind. 

When this breaking down of the barriers of 



GORDON PACHA. 291 

reserve takes place, lie seems to be swept away 
by the rushing flood of feelings and thoughts 
long pent up in his own breast : and you are 
impressed with the thorough earnestness of the 
man, in all he says or undertakes. For this, 
I take it, is the key-note to his character. He 
is a man terribly in earnest, and accepts life and 
its duties more in the spirit of an old Covenanter, 
than in the less serious one of our own days. 
The religious sentiment with him is very strong, 
the Bible being his constant companion in his 
tent, in the desert, or the wilderness, as I have 
been told by the companions of his explorations ; 
though he can be short and severe enough at 
times, as his Chinese record proves. In many 
of his peculiar ways and traits of character, he 
resembles much the famous Confederate chief- 
tain, Stonewall Jackson. 

Gordon Pacha is a man of middle height, 
sparely but strongly built, and giving little 
indication of the strength, both of sinews and 
constitution, which has borne him so far un- 
scathed through so many hardships, and the 
African swamps, where the "pestilence walketh 
at noonday," and wherein so many of his 
pioneers have laid their bones. Neither in face 
nor in figure does he carry any traces of his 
conflicts with the treacherous climate, and more 
treacherous human wild beasts, among whom 



292 



THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 



he had passed the two preceding years. Even his 
complexion, still comparatively fresh and fair, 
gave no hint of the kisses of the sun of Central 
Africa ; and his eye was as clear and bright, as 
though he had just come from promenading on 
the shady side of Pall Mall. He is quite youth- 
ful in appearance, with regular features and 
dark brown hair. His bearing is not that of 
a military man, he affects no martial stride or 
measured step, but walks very rapidly, looking 
neither to right or left, in seeming abstraction, 
with head a little advanced, and with a slight 
stoop of the shoulders, his eyes cast on the 
ground. One who had never seen him before, 
would mistake him rather for an author, intent 
on embodying an idea or fugitive thought, than 
the cool and intrepid explorer of African wilds, 
the self-possessed ruler of African savages. 

Yet this modest unassuming man has in him 
the stuff out of which great explorers and suc- 
cessful rulers of men are made — has proved it 
already ; and if he lives, and is not thwarted in 
his settled purpose by treachery or death, will 
be very apt to achieve it. He has gone to the 
Soudan, clothed with absolute power as relates 
to the governing of that province, which extend? 
from the first cataract to the Equator. 

All the world knows the incidents of his 
earlier career, and how and why he received the 



HIS WORK IN CENTRAL AFRICA. 293 

sobriquet of " Chinese Gordon," when in con- 
junction with two American officers he rescued 
the "flowery empire" from its rebels, and 
gave the army they commanded the title of the 
" Invincible Army." Surviving his comrades, 
Burgwin and Ward, Gordon reaped a rich harvest 
of renown, and was invited by the Khedive to 
aid him in his Central African designs ; with 
what results is also well known. 

I had the pleasure of meeting him at Cairo, as 
he passed home on his brief conge at the close of 
1876, and on his return early in 1877, when he 
presented his ultimatum to the Khedive, and 
was given all and even more authority than he 
demanded, within a few days after his arrival; 
leaving shortly after to assume his new func- 
tions, as governor-general for life of all the 
Khedive's actual or potential equatorial posses- 
sions. His work in Central Africa, thus far, has 
been simply preparatory to that which he now 
has set out to terminate, viz., to weld together 
under one government the scattered outlying 
provinces, and more recent acquisitions loosely 
termed The Soudan : a territory larger and more 
populous than Egypt proper, to which it acknow- 
ledges the most indefinite kind of obedience — 
offering, both in its climate and its savage inhabi- 
tants, immense difficulties in the way of regular 
government or improvement. But the main 



294 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

object of Gordan Pacha's ambition, and the 
chief incentive to his taking his life into his 
hand, and returning to his province, is the sup- 
pression of the internal slave-trade; which feat 
he has pledged himself to accomplish, should life 
and health be spared him, and the inscrutable 
fiat of Omnipotence not forbid it. But neither 
he, nor those who know him best, believe that he 
will fail ; although he has indeed a thorny path to 
tread, and a most difficult task to accomplish. 
All doubts as to the Khedive's sincerity in this 
matter, would seem to be put at rest, by the 
absolute authority he has given Colonel Gordon, 
and given for life, with no reserved right of 
recalling it; for it was on that condition only 
that he consented to go. 

I do not know which, of the two tasks he has 
set himself, is the more difficult to accomplish. 
The Central or Equatorial Africans are terribly 
barbarous and savage, and as faithless as fero- 
cious, with a wild sense of independence, and 
hatred of all the restraints of civilization. As to 
slavery and the slave-trade, they have long been 
the cherished institutions of the country, the 
very foundation of their social system ; and to 
eradicate either, or both, will be a task of greater 
difficulty and danger, than those unacquainted 
with the country and people can possibly ima- 
gine. Even without entirely accomplishing his 



GORDON PACHA. AIDES. 295 

self-appointed task, Gordon Pacha may do a 
great and good work, by reducing the existing 
chaos into some semblance of settled govern- 
ment : and paving the way, for at least the 
partial civilization of a people, at present given 
over to barbarism. 

The first effect of the late stoppage of the 
slave-trade, has been to diminish the receipts of 
ivory, and other products of Central Africa ; but 
once diverted by the river and railway communi- 
cation to Cairo, that trade may become one of 
the most important resources of Egypt. 

His seat of government will be Khartoum, on 
the White Nile, already a large and growing 
place of about 30,000 inhabitants, which the 
rapidly increasing trade of Central Africa, if 
diverted thither, should expand into a large city. 
He has no European or white man with him, 
save a Maltese dragoman, Tomaso Eerrante. His 
only lieutenants at present are Major Prout, a 
veiy clever American civil engineer, who has 
already been two years in Central Africa, and 
who will act as his deputy governor-general ; 
and Colonel Mason, an equally experienced and 
clever officer, one of the ex-Confederates in the 
Khedive's service. Both of these last-named 
officers are good linguists, which is of great im- 
portance in their position. Colonel Chaille Long, 
who was with Gordon in his first expedition 



296 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

(whose clever narrative of his adventures and 
discoveries excited much attention last year), is 
now at Cairo under medical treatment ; his health 
having suffered severely from his trying visit to 
King M'Tesa. That potentate is said to he 
hadly disposed towards the new governor- 
general, and may give much trouble ; and dis- 
turbances are said to have broken out at Darfour, 
whither Colonel Mason was sent. The latest 
tidings of Gordon Pacha were, that he also was 
hastening to Darfour, to quell those disturbances. 
The extent of the new province, which is larger 
than Egypt proper, will render it a task of no 
small difficulty to keep it in subjection to the 
authority of one man; especially if the savage 
chiefs, like M'Tesa and the so-called King of Dar- 
four, should rebel against or resist Egyptian rule. 
Whether or not success crowns Gordon Pacha's 
intrepid efforts to unite the scattered tribes 
under 'a stable government, and stop the slave- 
trade, his merit will be none the less ; for, like 
the knight who set out in quest of the " Holy 
Grail," the purpose in itself would glorify" even 
failure. 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 

MIXED JUDICIAL TRIBUNALS IN EGYPT 

Efforts of Sublime Porte, for twenty-five years, to break down the 
doctrine of exterritoriality in tbe Turkish dominions — What ex- 
territoriality means — Mixed tribunals attempted to be introduced, 
under " Hatti Houmaion " of Sultan in 1856, and again tried by 
Egyptian Government in 1S60 — Why prevented by consuls-general 
on those occasions — Nubar Pasha's persistent efforts and final 
partial success — His plan as opposed to the plan recently adopted — ■ 
My own action in the matter — The present tribunals entitled to a 
fair trial. 

The idea of mixed judicial tribunals is a very 
old one, originating a quarter of a century ago 
in Turkey ; the Ottoman Porte thus seeking to 
shake off the anomalous, and, as it regarded it, 
degrading claim of the Christian Powers to 
deny the jurisdiction of its courts, and what it 
termed justice, on behalf of their subjects ; 
resting their right on the old capitulations, 
which ceded that privilege, on the ground of the 
incompatibility of their law, based on the Koran, 
to people of other nations and different faiths. 
Hence arose the doctrine of exterritoriality, 



298 THE KUEDIVE S EGYPT. 

which simply signified the absence of local 
jurisdiction over the foreigner throughout the 
Ottoman dominions, and legal authority of then' 
own diplomatic or consular agents over them, in 
all civil or criminal cases in which they might 
be defendants. For all cases in which they were 
plaintiffs, their representatives in the country, 
or on the spot, were bound to press upon the 
local Government their claims or rights : and the 
practice grew up of submitting such mixed cases 
to the local tribunals, in the presence of the 
chancelier of the consulate, or submitting them 
to arbitration. 

The Sublime Porte, in its windy proclamations 
issued from time to time, attempted to shake oft 
this imperium in imjperio of the foreign agents, 
which doubtless was sometimes pushed too far, 
sometimes abused ; as will ever be the case when 
such great power is intrusted to men not 
always" capable, or endowed with discretion or 
principle. 

But, upon the whole, as far as my experience 
went, the system worked well, and insured 
speedy and substantial justice to foreign residents, 
in the absence of a better tribunal. As early as 
1856, in the " Hatti Houma'ion " of the then 
Sultan, the substitution of mixed tribunals for 
the settlement of all difficulties between 
strangers and natives throughout the empire was 



ATTEMPT TO ESTABLISH TRIBUNAL IN 1856. 299 

decreed ; and a copy of the firman sent to Egypt 
to be publicly read, that its provisions might be 
applied there, as elsewhere throughout the 
empire. On receiving it, Said Pasha shrugged 
his shoulders, and submitted it to the consuls- 
general, whose duties were diplomatic, the mere 
consular duties being attended to by the 
consuls and vice-consuls. 

In a despatch to my Government, dated 
May 1st, 1856, the reasons that induced my 
colleagues and myself to refuse accepting this 
innovation were fully set forth. A few extracts 
from that document will suffice to show the 
justice of our refusal to countenance the change. 

" With reference to the practical operation of 
the mixed tribunals proposed, an almost insuper- 
able difficulty arises from the absence of a 
common language and a common sympathy 
between its constituent parts. Nine-tenths of 
the rayahs speak or understand no language but 
their own, the Arabic. Each foreign nationality 
is ignorant of the language spoken or understood 
by the other, as a general rule ; while for com- 
munication with the natives a jargon composed 
partly of lingua Franca, partly of Arabic, is most 
current. The Maltese subjects of Great Britain, 
of whom there are a great many here, and con- 
stantly in litigation, have actually invented a 
new language, understood only by themselves, 



300 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

composed of French, Italian, Spanish, and 
Arabic. 

" Men who- not only live apart, bnt are careful 
even to be- buried apart, regarding close contact 
in life or death as contamination, could scarcely 
be coupled together or confer very harmoniously. 
Imagine a tribunal composed of several Moslems, 
two Christian Armenians, two Latin and two 
Greek Christians (every native Christian sect here 
bitterly hating the other), and add two Jewish 
Eabbis, and you would have a most striking 
illustration of "the happy family" in the 
museums, composed of the most uncongenial 
animals possibly to be found. It would certainly 
require a liberal use of the most common 
instrument in the administration of Eastern 
justice, the hourbasJi (whip), to prevent them 
from throttling each other." 

The indifference of Said Pacha, and the active 
opposition of the consuls-general to any change, 
quashed the project for a time. But, four years 
later, the idea was revived, and a determined 
effort made, with the support of a portion of the 
consular corps, to compel the introduction of 
mixed tribunals, on the Constantinople plan, 
into Egypt. This attempt was also frustrated, 
by the refusal of several of my colleagues and 
myself to consent to such a change on, as we 
believed, good and sufficient grounds. 



CONSULS-GENERAL OPPOSING. 301 

In order that our action then may not be 
regarded as merely personal or factious, I shall 
make a few brief extracts from my communi- 
cations on the subject to my own and to the 
Egyptian Governments, giving the reasons for 
our action. On July 7th, 1860, Cherif Pacha, 
then Minister of Foreign Affairs, transmitted to 
all the consuls-general a despatch, covering a 
printed programme of "A Mixed International 
Tribunal," which he declared had been "adopted 
by the representatives of the five European 
Powers signing the treaty of 1841 in accord 
with the Egyptian Government ; " to which, in 
the name of the viceroy, he demanded our ad- 
hesion. The salient points of my reply to Cherif 
Pacha, in which all of my other colleagues, save 
the five above mentioned, concurred, were as 
follows : — 

" Whatever may be the real or supposed obli- 
gations conferred on the Egyptian Government 
by any of the Powers in 1841, or at any other 
period, at this date every representative of a 
foreign Government here, great or small, enjoys 
the right of exclusive protection of his own 
subjects or citizens, under treaty stipulations, in 
which the rights and privileges conceded ' to the 
most favoured nations ' place all foreign agents 
here on the same footing. Under such circum- 
stances, as the representative of my Government 

O 



302 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

here, I never will surrender those rights, nor 
resign into irresponsible hands, my high pre- 
rogative of demanding and enforcing justice for 
my people, from prince or peasant, in Egypt and 
its dependencies. 

"A general convocation of all the consuls- 
general has hitherto been the universal, as well 
as the only just and proper mode of considering 
proposed reforms, or changes affecting all nation- 
alities; but on two separate occasions, within 
my own official term, projects very similar to 
this, but of wider scope, have been discussed, 
and finally rejected by the whole body thus 
assembled. 

" Why, upon this occasion, a studied exclusion 
of more than two-thirds of the consular corps 
has been made, the Egyptian Government may 
possibly be able to explain, if not to justify ; but 
it certainly relieves those thus excluded, from 
the thankless task of volunteering opinions, after 
the l adoption ' of a system, or of giving in their 
adhesion to a tribunal, wherein they are to have 
an occasional solitary representative, as an act 
of grace only, when their own business is to be 
settled by the numerous deputies of the Egyptian 
Government and of the five Powers, with power 
of appeal to another, a remote, and an alien 
jurisdiction. The law too of such tribunals is 
to follow the Code Napoleon, diluted by the 



THEIR REASONS GIVEN. 303 

customs and usages of the country — a code in 
direct opposition to the common law, which re- 
gulates the affairs of sixty millions of American 
and English men. Apart from the radical objec- 
tion as to the mode of its inception, the project 
itself does not obtain the sanction of my judg- 
ment, for many and grave objections as to its 
plan and provisions ; which, at a proper time 
and place, and to a competent authority, I shall 
stand prepared to justify." 

To the Secretary of State I gave those objec- 
tions in detail, of which only the salient ones 
shall now be reproduced. 

" lstly. The High Court of Appeal from the 
judgments of proposed tribunal is to be Con- 
stantinople, where the laws, usages, customs, 
currency, and language are as widely dissimilar 
from those of Egypt, as those of England would 
be from those of Austria, and where neither 
judge, jury, nor witnesses would be accessible. 

" 2ndly. Such tribunal is to adopt the Code 
Napoleon in its proceedings, where the usages 
and customs of the country prove insufficient, 
and is framed exclusively on French models and 
based on French law. When the Mediterranean 
shall really have become a 'French lake,' either 
by conquest or treaty, it will be time to adopt 
the French code as the supreme law of the 
Levant; but until then we prefer the common 



304 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

law, and an equitable settlement on the basis of 
justice, irrespective of forms, for our people. 

" 3rdly. The representatives or judges ap- 
pointed by tbe ' five treaty Powers ' only would 
sit in judgment on the rights and interests of all 
other nationalities in Egypt ; giving those ' five ' 
effectively a protectorate over Egypt, and all 
foreigners therein. In such case the continued 
residence of agents of other Powers would be a 
mere farce. 

" 5thly. Under the printed programme a bribe 
is offered to the judges to protract, instead ot 
hasten judgment : each receiving £5 for every 
sitting, and no limit being put upon their 
number ! Such litigation would be an ex- 
pensive luxury. 

"6thly. The large sum required to be de- 
posited in advance by the claimant, for payment 
of expenses, costs, etc., would make this court 
the resort of rich speculators, not poor and 
honest creditors. To the same practical effect 
would be the extraordinary clause, that ' no 
claimant after commencing his process shall be 
allowed to settle his cause ! ' 

" 7thly and lastly. The creation of such tri- 
bunal is utterly uncalled for. The Egyptian 
Government exercises authority over the princes, 
who are Egyptian subjects, as well as over the 
rest of the natives ■ and arbitration, the simplest 



NUBAR PACHA'S NOTE. 305 

and most honest mode of settling controversies, 
is always open to them, should this Government 
feel any delicacy in their behalf; while as relates 
to the Egyptian Government itself, I mnst bear 
testimony, after seven years' experience, to its 
good faith in the fulfilment of all bond fide 
contracts or obligations." 

One of my colleagues concurring with me was 
the Sardinian, the list of whose consulate num- 
bered 10,000 persons. The scheme was dropped. 

The initiation of the existing judicial tribunals 
is due to Nubar Pacha, who for seven years 
laboured indefatigably with the foreign Powers 
and the Khedive to remove difficulties. In 
1868 he laid down the basis of his project, in 
many respects widely differing from that which 
has been finally adopted, in a formal " Note 
to his Highness the Viceroy of Egypt on the 
Euture Kegulation of the Legal and Judicial 
Eelations between the Foreign and Native 
Population of Egypt " — covering a report from 
M. Manoury, of the bar of Paris, on the same 
subject — from which I take the following ex- 
tracts : — 

" Sire, — The legal system to which Europeans 
in Egypt are subject, and which determines 
their relations both with the Egyptian Govern- 
ment and the inhabitants of the country, are no 
longer based upon the capitulations. Of those 
capitulations nothing exists but the name. 



306 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

They have been replaced by a system customary 
and arbitrary, resulting from the character of 
each chief of the consular agencies ; a system 
founded on precedents more or less improper, 
and one which the force of circumstances, pres- 
sure on the one side and anxiety to facilitate the 
establishment of foreigners on the other, have 
introduced into Egypt ; a system which really 
leaves the administration without power, and 
the people without any regular justice in their 
intercourse with Europeans. 

" The necessity of a reform is keenly felt as 
the European colony increases ; the consular 
agencies themselves recognize the necessity of 
it, and even demand it. The Egyptian Govern- 
ment and the consulates are at one as regards 
the principle of this necessity; disagreement 
commences at the means of putting the prin- 
ciple in practice. 

" The Government sees itself attacked by law- 
suits which frequently the consuls themselves 
are compelled to stigmatize as scandalous. The 
native population distrusts the European ; the 
Government, which nevertheless sees progress in 
this same European, is obliged, for fear of being 
victimized, to keep aloof from him. 

" For more than forty years the European has 
enjoyed the right to hold property in Egypt. 
His possession is said to be subject to the 
tribunals and laws of the country. The consuls 
in theory are agreed on this principle, but in 
practice, under pretext of the capitulations, 
which they say cover the European, the latter, 
being either owner of a house or carrying on a 
trade, pays no duties ; and if being owner of an 
estate he does not pay land-tax, then the consul 



EXPLANATION OF HIS VIEWS. 307 

interferes, and his interference almost always 
ends in non-payment. 

" This state of things, contrary to the spirit 
and even the letter of the capitulations, not only 
hinders the country from developing its re- 
sources, from furnishing to European industry 
and capital all that it is ready to furnish, hut 
puts an obstacle in the way of its organization, 
and ruins it alike morally and materially. 

"Your highness has thought that the only 
remedy to apply to this state of things is the 
organization of a good system of justice, which 
would present to Europe all the guarantees 
which it has a right to demand. 

"Your highness has thought that the foreign 
element ought to enter into the organization of 
our tribunals. In fact, this element, which is 
not numerous at Cairo, is equal at Alexandria to 
the native element. A number of Europeans are 
permanent residents in the provinces. All are 
engaged in commerce or manufactures. They 
are therefore in daily, and so to speak hourly 
communication with the population. Account 
must therefore be taken of this element in the 
organization of the tribunals, and upon principle 
even superabundant guarantees must be given, 
in order to inspire in that element confidence 
alike in the judges and in the administration. 

" The main principle is the complete divorce 
of justice from the administration. Justice 
ought to emanate from the Government, but ought 
to be independent of the Government. It ought 
to be alike independent of Government and of 
consulates. In order to attain the end which 
your highness has in view, the Powers of Europe 
must be satisfied of the fact : ' Justice emanates 



308 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

from the Government, but is independent of it. 
The means of inspiring this conviction are to be 
found in the possession of a body of trained 
judges. Knowledge of the law is indispensable 
to the judge. It is matter of habitual study, 
it is altogether an education. Our present 
magistrates have a perfect knowledge of the law, 
civil and religious, which sufficed when they had 
but to render a uniform justice to a population 
uniform in manners and requirements. 

" But to meet new contingencies we must have 
new laivs, and the Europeans, in establishing 
themselves in the country, have introduced new 
usages and novel relations. A mixed system 
has begun to find its way into our laws and our 
codes, consequently we must have new men to 
apply this new system. Egypt, to secure the 
a dm inistration of justice, must do what she has 
already done in so efficient a manner for the sake 
of her army, her railroads, her bridges and high- 
ways, and her sanitary improvements. The 
element which is competent to the task, I mean 
the foreign element, has been introduced. That 
element has served to educate the native element. 
That which has been done in the material must 
be done in the moral world, that is to say, in the 
organization of justice. 

" I have the honour to propose to your high- 
ness the preservation of the two mixed tribunals 
of commerce established at Cairo and at Alex- 
andria ; but in place of their being composed of 
three members chosen by the consuls from 
among the merchants of the European colony, 
and of the three native members whom the 
Government summons to it in turn, I would pro- 
pose to your highness to compose the court of 



THE TRIBUNALS TO BE EGYPTIAN. 309 

only four members, of whom two should be 
chosen by the consuls from the most consider- 
able of merchants, presenting the highest guaran- 
tees, and two others by the Government from 
the natives, whose course of business brings 
them into the closest relations with Europeans. 
These members, in accordance with the existing 
plan, Would sit in turn. I would propose to 
your highness to leave the 'presidency of the court 
to an Egyptian, but to concede the vice-presi- 
dency to a judge chosen in Europe-; and in 
order to have guarantees of his character, it 
would be well to apply to the minister of justice 
of the country from which he is taken. The 
latter judge would be appointed for life. 

"Besides these two tribunals, it would be 
necessary to have a court of appeal sitting at Alex- 
andria. That court would be composed of three 
Egyptian members, whom your highness could 
select among our young men who have studied 
law in Europe ; and three other members, com- 
petent judges obtained from Europe by appli- 
cation to their respective Governments. This 
court would discharge its functions under the 
presidency of an Egyptian. By the side of the 
two tribunals of commerce, there would be two 
tribunals to decide in civil suits. Those might 
be composed of two competent members selected 
from abroad, and two Egyptian members, also 
under the presidency of an Egyptian subject. 

" The court of appeal sitting at Alexandria 
would also enjoy as one of its prerogatives, the 
revision of judgments given by the civil courts. 
In causes arising out of questions of real pro- 
perty, Europeans have always been subject to 
our courts. These courts work well. Their 

02 



310 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

component members thoroughly understand the 
subject-matter. Here the foreign element would 
not be of superior competence. I therefore pro- 
pose to your highness to leave these courts as 
they are. 

"About 1848 the consuls, under the pressure 
of their countrymen, having usurped the office of 
the law, found themselves powerless, erected 
their own impotence into a principle, and by 
degrees, by the force of circumstances, were 
driven to the presumption of ousting the Govern- 
ment and holding trials themselves — at most 
calling in a functionary of the native police ; 
their pretext being that, as the penalty had to 
be inflicted in their own country, the trial could 
not be valid, except it were held in conformity 
with their own laws. 

" Such is really the state of things not only as 
regards crimes, but even as regards offences and 
simple infractions of the law. Justice is seen to 
be altogether given up not to institutions, but to 
the arbitrary will of individuals. The position 
of the Government is no longer tenable, when 
one considers that the police is powerless to 
repress the smallest infraction of the law, to such 
an extent as to be unable to enforce the high- 
way regulations, or those which concern the 
stations of the public vehicles. For, if some one 
consul is disposed, upon the application of the 
police, to call to order a refractory driver, 
another consul regards the matter as a trifling 
affair, sometimes for the very reason that the 
other deems it worth attention. 

" In short, what your highness demands, 
whether in respect of the civil or the criminal 
law, is a return to the capitulations ; and not 



nubar's plan not adopted. 311 

merely a return pur et simple, but, on the con- 
trary, a return which would grant to foreigners 
guarantees superior to those which these capitu- 
lations presented to them. 

" In effect, according to these capitulations 
the foreigner has a native tribunal, which hears 
and decides in the presence of the dragoman, a 
mere witness without a consultative voice. 

" According to the projected reform your 
highness, in place of this silent witness, con- 
cedes to foreigners the guarantee of a tribunal, 
in the composition of which a European 
element enters ; and of a code reduced into 
conformity with the penal and civil laws of 
Europe." 

From this statement of the ideas and purposes 
of Nubar Pacha, it is evident, on comparing 
what he planned and what he achieved, that the 
Khedive and the Great Powers treated him as 
Homer's Jupiter treated the prayers of mortals — 
" one-half they granted, the rest dismissed into 
empty air." His plan was to curb at once the 
absolute power of the Khedive, and restrict the 
authority of the consuls-general, by estabhshing 
tribunals which should overrule the arbitrary 
decisions of both. At the same time his purpose 
was to give the controlling voice to the 
Egyptian element, and to extend their juris- 
diction over the native as well as over the 
European population throughout the whole 
country. 



312 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

As the tribunals are now constituted they are 
international tribunals only, with jurisdiction 
exclusively civil (extending only to criminal 
offences committed against their members), and 
not having jurisdiction over the five and a half 
millions of natives, who are still subject to the 
old Egyptian judges and the old system which 
has the Koran as its basis. ; 

His avowed object was to make the system 
of general application ; and while giving the 
European element a voice, to keep the control 
in Egyptian hands, but in educated and legal 
ones. The consular authority died hard; it 
reserved its criminal jurisdiction, and even its 
consular courts in certain cases, and claimed 
a controlling voice for its substitutes in the 
courts. The Khedive, ceding the mixed juris- 
diction, has taken no steps to divest himself and 
his courts of absolute control over the native 
population, either in civil or criminal cases, in 
which no European interest is involved. Whether 
the consummation sought by Nubar will ever be 
reached, depends greatly on the success of the 
experiment, now being made on a limited scale, 
which might induce an expansion of its attributes 
and authority, in the creation of native courts 
founded upon a somewhat similar basis. 

There are good lawyers and clever men on the 
existing courts, and they are honestly striving to 



THE EXISTING TKIBUNALS. 313 

remove the great impediments, which obstruct 
their usefulness, and their most strenuous efforts. 

The pay of the judges I do not regard as 
exorbitant, under the circumstances ; but I do 
think the costs and expenses of litigation are too 
great. Yet, even with the very heavy costs, the 
sum thus far gathered in, as I understand, has 
proved inadequate to relieve the Government 
from one-half of the expense of the very 
cumbrous machinery employed in working the 
new establishment. As the courts are organized 
on the French plan, there is a small army of 
subordinate officers attached to them ; and if the 
whole affair could be simplified — reduced in 
numbers and in expense — I believe it would 
prove more manageable, and more in consonance 
with the wants and wishes of the parties chiefly 
concerned, namely, the tax-payers, the litigants, 
and the Khedive. 

No machine so complicated and so entirely 
novel, both in construction and purpose, can be 
expected to approach perfection at the outset ; 
and I venture, with hesitation, to make these 
suggestions, without impugning either the utility 
of the tribunals, within a certain scope, or the 
propriety and fitness of the selections made for 
their higher posts ; the judges having been 
appointed upon the recommendation of their 
respective Governments, who, and not the 



314 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

Khedive, must be held responsible for their 
selection. Doubtless, as the members of the 
tribunal warm to their work, and learn more of 
the exceptional country to which they have been 
called, as well as gain a mastery over the Babel 
of tongues prevailing there, the machine may 
act more smoothly and efficiently than it has 
hitherto done. 



CHAPTEE XIX. 

EGYPTIAN FINANCE AND RESOURCES. 

Absorbing interest felt tberein — The doctors disagreeing — State of the 
patient in tbe eyes of a non-professional — A plain statement as to 
amounts actually received from foreign loans by tbe Khedive — What 
did he do with it? — Testimony of the Times partly exculpatory 
of the Khedive — Curious and instructive letter from a native 
Egyptian official, translated from the French — His statements of 
resources, and suggestions for their increase — A few facts and figures. 

It would seem strange that a book devoted to 
Egypt should make no mention of Egyptian 
finance, a matter which has probably attracted 
more attention, and created more painful in- 
terest in the minds of foreigners, towards the 
country and its rulers, than all M. Mariette's 
truly remarkable discoveries among the debris ot 
its ancient and forgotten ruins ; or the equally 
wonderful spectacle of an Eastern prince playing 
the role of reformer and regenerator of his 
public farm, for such Egypt had been to his 
family ; the only previous efforts having been 
directed to the increase of its agricultural pro- 



81(5 THE KHEDIVES EGYPT. 

ducts, and the ways and means of increased 
taxation. 

Where the most eminent financiers of all 
countries have heen called into consultation, 
and have proffered their panaceas, it would he 
presumptuous indeed in one whose mind has 
been engrossed, and whose life has heen spent, in 
other duties, dogmatically to pronounce either 
on thb symptoms or the condition of the patient, 
over which these most learned doctors have only 
" agreed to disagree." 

I shall, therefore, on this topic briefly cite the 
opinions of those who are best qualified to pass 
judgment, both as to the disease, the remedy, 
and the actual state and prospects of the patient ; 
who I have never believed to be half " the sick 
man" his cousin at Constantinople long has 
been, and who, under proper treatment, and the 
exercise of forbearance on the part of his dry- 
nurses," can and ought to be restored to even 
more than his pristine vigour, if time only be 
given for the cure, and undue pressure be not 
put upon him in his present shaky condition. 

And firstly, as to the amounts received and 
squandered, or invested in public works as yet 
unproductive — have they really amounted to the 
very large figure, rising to almost ,£100,000,000, 
for which the Khedive and his country are 
debited by the foreign accountants, and his own 



THE TIMES ON EGYPTIAN DEBT. 317 

admissions. It is safe to say that not one-half 
of this amount has the Khedive ever netted 
out of his various loans, and that the outside 
dead loss to the foreign investor — chiefly 
English and French — supposing the Egyptian 
Government absolutely bankrupt, excluding the 
funding loans and floating debt, would not 
exceed from £15,000,000 to £20,000,000. 

But recent experiments, under Mr. Goschen's 
scheme, have proved that the country is by no 
means bankrupt, and is astonishing everybody, 
even those who thought they best understood 
the limits of her resources, by meeting the 
enormous payments due in January and July, 
under the most stringent and onerous conditions 
ever imposed by creditor on debtor ; and, crucial 
fact of all, that the Khedive has acted in perfect 
good faith towards his foreign commissioners of 
the Caisses for receipt and disbursement of the 
public funds ; doing more instead of less than 
he was called upon to do. 

For the statement I have made as to the 
actual receipts and expenditures, for public 
benefit, from the loans originally made by the 
Khedive, I quote from the money article of the 
London Times of 19th May, 1876, the following 
pregnant admissions ; the more weighty because 
that journal is not disposed to take a rose- 
coloured view, either of the Khedive, or of 



318 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYTT. 

Egyptian finance for some time past ; Turkish 
default having thrown its shadow over the 
tributary, as well as the chief sinner, in the 
Times' appreciation. The Times says : — 

"According to the statement of Mr. Cave's 
report, the Khedive has only netted some 
£45,000,000 on all the existing loans, State 
and private, which have been floated for him, 
and out of that he has paid back, including 
the last April coupon, over £31,000,000. Of 
the remainder, some £10,000,000 went to defray 
costs connected with the Suez Canal and the 
unjust awards of Napoleon III. connected with 
it; so that but a minute sum remains which 
the Khedive could by any possibility have spent 
on improving his country. He can hardly have 
thus spent even that minute sum, because it 
would be needed for commissions, discounts, 
and market operations and for the ' service ' of 
the debt. Therefore, we have the huge floating 
debt as the sort of lumber-room into which the 
costs of all his extravagances have been flung. 
The floating debts cannot reasonably be viewed 
as an investor's loss at all, and, excluding these, 
as well as part of the Turkish fives, and of later 
funding loans of both Turkey and Egypt, we 
believe a sum of £20,000,000 to £25,000,000 
may safely be taken as the outside dead loss 
of the investing public, not more than half of 



STATEMENTS OP AN EGYPTIAN OFPICIAL. 319 

which would fall on this country, supposing the 
Turkish, and Egyptian Governments to fail 
absolutely." 

In a very remarkable letter, addressed to the 
Times from Paris, and published in Erench in 
that journal under date of 19th May, a clear 
and rapid resume of the actual financial con- 
dition of Egypt, is given by an " ex-Egyptian 
official then in that capital," who it was sup- 
posed could be none other than Nubar Pacha, 
the former Minister of Commerce and Foreign 
Affairs, whose knowledge and honesty no one 
could doubt. I translate the closing portion 
of his letter, which gives, in a nutshell, the 
resources from which Egypt proposes to meet 
her obligations, as I never saw them so briefly, 
clearly, and inteUigibly stated elsewhere : — 

" . . . . Having shown the efficacy of 
the control established by the appointment of 
the foreign commissioners, it remains only 
to examine the financial side of this decree. 
Can Egypt pay the interest she promises, 
and, at the same time, meet the actual wants 
of her internal administration? My answer is 
in the affirmative. I entertain no doubts on the 
subject. I adopt even the figures of Mr. Cave. 
According to Mr. Cave's report the annual 
revenues of Egypt are £10,500,000. He is 
right in these figures, but he comprises in this 



320 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

estimate the proceeds of ttie Moukabaleh, which 
amount to 561,500,000 annually; but as this 
is only a temporary tax, without it the regular 
revenues of Egypt would amount to £9,000,000. 
Yet were the Moukabaleh suspended, it follows 
that those who have paid but half the tax must 
also then pay the other half, which equalizes 
it, and restores the permanent revenue to 
£10,500,000. 

" But you know that in Egypt there are two 
kinds of taxable lands, viz., the i Kharadgis' 
(under lease), and the ' Euchuris' (tithe lands). 
The latter of these enjoy special privileges, and 
are not taxed to one-half the extent of the 
other. This certainly is not just, and the 
Government may well raise the rate of taxation 
in the latter case, so as to equalize the two. 

" Now, as these privileged lands represent 
1,300,000 feddans (acres), an additional tax of 
half a guinea on each acre, which would only 
raise the tax to the standard of the other lands, 
would give an immediate augmentation of yearly 
revenue to the amount of £650,000. You also 
are aware that the Europeans resident in the 
country pay no taxes. This enormity naturally 
must disappear, since the new tribunals have 
given them all necessary guarantees for their 
security. A tax of £1 10s. on each European 
(of whom there are 150,000 in Egypt) would 



ADDITIONAL TAXATION SUGGESTED. 321 

augment the revenues ,£225,000, which, with 
that previously mentioned, would add £875,000 
to the £10,500,000 estimated by Mr. Cave, 
making a total of 11,300,000. 

" Granting that Mr. Cave has over-calculated 
by more than a million of pounds, even a million 
and a half, and we should have at least 
£9,700,000 and the interest of the debt defrayed, 
there would remain for the service of the State 
£400,000. But our actual administration never 
fairly costs this sum. 

These are our true expenses, viz. : 

For all the public administrations, except the army ... £1,300,000 

The tribute for Constantinople 700,000 

Civil list of the Khedive 600,000 

Leaving for the army 1,400,000 



£4,000,000 

" But, in fact, the army only figures in the 
Budget for £700,000 ; hence the surplus of 
£700,000 must pass somewhere outside of the 
Budget. 

" Should, however, the taxation and the 
receipts not reach the sum necessary for the pay- 
ment of the interest on the public debt, have not 
the bondholders the right to say to the Khedive 
that he must sooner diminish his army expenses 
than their payments ? Have they not the right 
to say this enormous army is the ruin of the 
country? Have they not the right to say to 
him that his civil list is six times as large as 






322 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

that of the Emperor Napoleon (the relative size 
of the two countries considered), and that, as 
proprietor of a fifth of the soil of Egypt, it would 
be but just for him to diminish by ,£200,000 or 
£300,000 his civil list, that his creditors might 
be paid?" 

Owing to the anomalous attitude occupied by 
the Khedive towards his own Government and 
to the foreign creditor, arising from his double 
character as ruler of the country and private 
planter and trader, it has been found most 
difficult to separate his public and orivate 
indebtedness from each other, or to define 
the limits which bound one from the other. 
Hence all the European financiers, in their suc- 
cessive reports, have drawn a line between the 
two, in as far as they were able ; altl ough the 
affairs and obligations of the private Daira and 
the public debt seemed to be twined as closely 
together as the ivy to the oak. The clearest 
statement as to the personal liabilities of the 
Khedive, and his resources for meeting them, 
has been given by Mr. Sandars, the able lawyer 
who was sent out last winter by Mr. Goschen, 
in conjunction with M. Joson, a French lawyer, 
representing the French creditors, to perfect 
a plan already discussed with, and consented to 
by, the Khedive in his capacity of private land- 
holder and agriculturist. 



ME. SANDARS' EEPORT. 



323 



A very full report of the various estates 
belonging to the Khedive and his family, ' pre- 
pared by Mr. Sandars, was read by that gentle- 
man, on his return to London in May last, to 
a meeting of the creditors, from which it appears 
that the landed property of the Khedive and 
his family embraced 435,000 acres, or "feddans," 
of which 258,000 were devoted to the sugar 
culture. 

The balance-sheet of this vast property is 
given by Mr. Sandars as follows : — 



Lands let 
Cotton . 
Sundries 
Winter crops 
Sugar 



.TCOME. 


... £130,000 


••• i 


.. 85,000 


... 


.. 85,000 


... ■ 


.. 200,000 


••• i 


.. 700,000 




£1,200,000 



ExPENDITUBE. 

Taxes £150,000 

Agriculture expenses ... 400,000 

Factory expenses ... 250,000 



£800,000 
Balance 400,000 



£1,200,000 



The value of the sugar crop hero given is 
admittedly taken at a higher rate than recent 
years have seen, but Mr. Sandars says that 
improved administration might so increase the 
yield of sugar as to compensate for a fall in 
prices. For the present year he places the 
probable yield at £800,000. 

According to Mr. Cave's carefully prepared 
report, the Egyptian Budget for 1876 showed 
the receipts to be £10,772,611, and the expendi- 



324 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

ture £8,981,852, leaving a surplus of £1,790,759. 
As to the liabilities on trie Daira or Khedive's 
private estate, the loan of 1870 showed that 
the unpaid capital is £6,032,620, and the float- 
ing debt £3,000,000. The present revenue of 
Egypt is arrived at under three heads — land- 
tax, £4,305,131; Moukabaleh, £1,531,118; other 
sources of revenue, £4,852,821 ; making a total 
of £10,689,070. As to the growth of the trade 
of Egypt under the rule of the Khedive, it is, 
to say the least of it, in the highest degree 
encouraging. In the thirteen years which 
elapsed from 1849-50 to 1861-2 inclusive, the 
exports rose from £2,043,579 to £4,454,425. 
The year 1862-3, the first year of the Khedive, 
began with a sudden bound to £9,014,277, and 
increased in the following year to £14,416,661. 
In 1865 the exports fell, but only to £9,723,564 , 
they have never since been less than £8,000,000. 
Mr. Cave's report demonstrates as plainly as 
possible the fact of Egypt's solvency, should her 
finances be properly collected and administered, 
although in the judgment of those who ought to 
know the country best, she cannot afford to pay 
her creditors or tax her people at the rate of the 
existing arrangement, devised by Messrs. Goschen 
and Joubert, and thus far carried out with 
unexpected good faith and more than ordinary 
zeal by the Khedive himself, who — in justice 



WHAT EGYPT CANNOT PAY. 325 

it must be said — has from the first protested 
against the ability of the country long to sustain 
such heavy impositions, or so terrible a drain 
on its resources and productions, as this scheme 
involves. 

Without professing any superior knowledge of 
finance, or even equal skill in that science (if 
such it maybe called), to the many distinguished 
gentlemen who have ciphered up the Egyptian 
sum, I cannot forbear expressing my crude 
opinion that Mr. Cave was wise, when he urged 
that five per cent, was the maximum of interest 
Egypt could then afford to pay her creditors a1 
that time : since which her liabilities have so 
greatly increased, and her resources been so 
greatly diminished, that even that might now 
be difficult to meet, without more and greater 
sacrifices than that impoverished people are now 
making, and which it is impossible they can 
continue to make much longer; for flesh and 
blood cannot stand them. 

My judgment is based partly on the exhaustive 

reports of Mr. Cave, partly on my own intimate 

knowledge of the country and its resources for 

the last twenty years, which confirms in all 

important particulars the correctness of Mr. 

Cave's facts and figures, and the deductions 

drawn therefrom. 

Since the world began, was there ever a 

P 



326 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

population of the number of the Egyptian, from 
which taxation to such an enormous amount was 
annually wrung (even for a single year, much less 
for a series of years), increasing instead of 
diminishing, as the resources of the country be- 
came less and less, through the diminishing prices 
of their produce ; grain alone, owing to mere 
temporary causes, having kept up in price, while 
cotton has ceased almost to pay the cost of pro- 
duction (if it does even that), and the number of 
hands employed in cultivation has been greatly 
diminished bv causes already stated ? 

Eoughly stated, five millions and a half of 
E gyptian fellahs pay , in direct and indirect taxes, 
(besides extraordinary calls, such as war-tax and 
private pickings) a total of near seven millions 
of pounds sterling per annum. To which must 
be added near a million more for what are 
termed "local revenues, taxes, and dues," em- 
bracing municipal taxes, canal, bridge, port, and 
other dues ; and for the Moukabaleh (or antici- 
pated land-tax) one and a half millions more ; 
swelling up the total of taxation £2 per head all 
over Egypt. These figures I have adopted from 
Mr. Goschen's statement, the items of which I 
append ; but in two items, the actual tax levied 
on land and that on date trees, the amount is 
understated very considerably. 

When Sydney Smith drew his famous picture 



GRIM REALITIES OP TAXATION. 327 

of British taxation at the commencement of the 
present century, and showed how his countrymen, 
from the cradle to the grave, were the prey of 
the tax-gatherers, causing the great mass of 
those impositions to be removed, in the wildest 
nights of his fertile fancy he never soared to the 
naked realities of Egyptian taxation, as it is 
imposed and forcibly collected to-day, under 
European sanction. 



328 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 



CHAPTEE XX. 

EGYPTIAN NIGHTS' ENTEKTAINMENTS. 

The social life of Egypt — Native society unchanged — The ladies of 
the hareem, and their adoption of French millinery — The root of 
the evil — A royal wedding party in a Khedivial hareem described — 
The Khedive's entertainments — His breakfasts, dinners, and soirees 
dansantes at Ab-din. 

The social life of Egypt has undergone no 
apparent change, in so far as the great bulk of 
the native population is concerned. High and 
low, rich and poor, they still shrink from social 
contact with the foreigner, outside of the narrow 
circle of the court and its immediate members 
or employes. It is evident that just so long as 
the present system continues to be the law of 
the lives of this people, this must continue to 
be the case. The isolation of woman from 
general society involves the isolation also of 
man, whose hearth and home are in the hareem, 
where none but he may come. The cold civility 
of the selamlih (or man's apartment), where 
alone he may receive his guests or friends, 



SOCIAL LIFE OF EGYPT. 329 

prevents familiarity or friendship, either with 
the foreigner or native ; since into the charmed 
circle of the real home-life he is not allowed to 
enter. 

It is true that the women of the hare em, 
especially of the higher class (which is very 
small in Egypt), have adopted for themselves 
and slaves the fashions and fabrics of France, 
discarding their own more picturesque ones ; 
that instead of shuffling over the floor in slippers 
without heels, they now totter insecurely on the 
stilts of those hideous French boots, which 
make our modern belles as helpless and as 
tortured as the Chinese ; and that some 
favoured ladies of the hareem have imbibed a 
sufficient smattering of French language and 
tastes to listen, half asleep, to the indecencies 
of Offenbach's opera bouffe ; or stare with wide- 
awake eyes at the posturings and pirouettes of 
the imported ballet troupe, which outstrips and 
outrivals their own native almehs in agility and 
indecency. Yet even this chosen few still listen 
to, cr view these things from a carefully 
curtained stage-box, where they can see and 
hear without being visible to the rest of the 
audience. A sudden flash of light from jewels, 
or bright eyes, through a rent in the envious 
curtain concealing these fair ones, gives the only 
indication of their presence at the opera or 



330 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

theatre, where alone they are allowed even this 
partial privilege of semi-puhlicity. 

Ninety-nine hundredths of the Egyptian 
women, however, still adhere to their old habits 
and customs, and no woman of good character 
in Egypt has yet dared to appear abroad without 
her concealing veil or yashmak, or recognize or 
speak to any man in public or in private, except 
her husband or father. 

The wave of progress and of civilization, 
which has swept away from the Khedive's court 
almost all the old forms and usages, until it 
approximates to those of Europe, has dashed in 
vain up to the hareem doors ; whence it has been* 
driven back in shattered spray, but could gain 
no admission. The Eastern lady or woman may 
put on Worth's finery, and clothe her attendants 
in "Frank" dress; but there all similarity to 
her Western sister ends. 

She* is unchanged in her thoughts and habits, 
morals, and daily life. Until the slavery of the 
hareem is abolished, there can be no hope of 
the abolition of the domestic slavery it nourishes 
and perpetuates, as a necessary essential to its 
own continued existence., The Khedive enun- 
ciated a great truth in his reply to the deputation 
at Paris, already cited, when he boldly probed 
this tender point ; and those who have known 
the East longest and best, look almost with 



THE LADIES OF TEE HAEEEM. 331 

despair on the prospect of any real change in 
the position of woman there, so long as Islam, 
and polygamy (which is its offspring), are the 
laws of life to the female population. 

But the external changes in hareem life, since 
the time when Lady Mary Wortley Montague 
wrote her inimitable letters from behind the 
hareem veil in Turkey, have been considerable ; 
as foreign women, who have visited them twelve 
years ago, and recently, loudly declare. The 
complaint now made is that much of the glory 
has departed from the higher hareems, in conse- 
quence of these fair inmates having discarded 
their Oriental dress and usages, in the efforts to 
substitute "Frank" apparel and furniture for 
them; with the result ever accompanying half- 
way imitation. 

Hence it may not be amiss, before the vanish- 
ing point has been reached, to give here a 
description of an old-fashioned bridal reception 
in one of the royal hareems, but three or four 
years since, on the occasion of a series of royal 
nuptials, in which the Khedive's sons and one of 
his daughters figured as the principal performers. 
As a matter of course, I cannot pretend to 
describe this festival as an eye-witness ; but I 
have to thank a fair friend, who, as the wife of a 
high foreign officer in the Khedive's service, 
attended it, for the particulars. I cannot but 



332 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

regret, however, that I cannot reproduce her 
vivid account of the fairy-like scene, which has 
been marred in this attempt at repetition. 
^ The fete specially described was given in 
special honour of the Princess Fatmeh Ahnem, 
the Khedive's eldest daughter, on the occasion 
of her marriage to Prince Toussoun Pacha (since 
deceased), at the queen-mother's palace at Cairo. 
On leaving their carriages, the ladies who had 
been invited to the festival passed, first through 
an extensive garden, which was righted a giorno 
by countless lamps of many colours, and follow- 
ing a marble paved walk, boarded on either side 
with trees and rare plants, they reached the 
entrance of the palace, where eunuchs were 
waiting to lead them into a large and richly 
furnished saloon. There they found the white 
female slaves of the hareem, half of whom were 
clad as men, and all in the most magnificent 
Eastern costumes. These slaves acted as 
ushers. Some were plainly dressed, carrying 
drawn swords in their hands, and having red 
tarbouches on their heads ; whilst others were 
attired in splendid military uniforms ; and my 
fair informant adds, that they presented a very 
martial-looking appearance — not a bad imitation 
of the geDuine article. Having taken charge of 
the guests, they conducted them to a second 
saloon, where, for the amusement (and possible 



A EOYAL WEDDING FEAST. 333 

edification) of the visitors, dances were executed 
by the native almehs (dancing girls), to the 
music of their own castanets, and an orchestra 
composed of female performers. In other apart- 
ments other slaves performed a sort of ballet, 
with long wands, swords, and bucklers; but in 
this room only native dances were executed. 

The guests passed thence through a series of 
apartments or long halls, in which all manner of 
refreshments were served. There, according to 
nationality or taste, each was served either in 
Eastern or Western style, with things substan- 
tial or sweet ; and with those wonderful coloured 
drinks or sherbets, which are made of fruit, that 
Oriental hands alone know how to compose. 

The princesses of the royal family presided 
over one table, which was reserved for the 
Pacha's wives and those of the foreign consuls 
and other distinguished foreigners ; and in these 
apartments, as in the others, the sound of music 
and song was unceasing. 

Eefreshments partaken of, the guests were 
next presented to the queen-mother, who re- 
ceived them in a vast saloon, magnificently 
furnished, capable of accommodating thousands 
of persons- The visitors were preceded by the 
armed female slaves, and each formally pre- 
sented by name and title by the European lady- 
in-waiting. The presentations concluded, the 

P2 



334 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

guests were shown to their seats — divans ranged 
along the walls and covered with rich silks — 
whence they looked on at the dancing and 
singing of professionals engaged for that purpose. 
The performance concluded, the dancers re- 
ceived rich gifts of jewellery and cashmere 
shawls, as a reward for their exertions ; the wife 
of each bey or other dignitary invited to the fete 
having brought her present. At a sign from the 
queen-mother, the distribution of these gifts 
commenced, and as each was bestowed the 
name of the donor was announced, and a chorus 
of thanks returned by the recipients. 

This ceremony at an end, the bride made her 
appearance in the following manner. The 
eunuchs of the households of the Egyptian ladies 
formed; from the foot of the staircase up the 
steps and to the door of the saloon, where the 
queen-mother sat, a long line, each man holding 
a candelabra, in which were many long wax 
candles of different colours. Through this 
avenue of bronze the bride passed, treading all 
the while on cloth of gold — no less costly carpet 
being considered worthy to receive her royal 
footprint. Dancing-girls, dressed in the bride's 
livery, preceded her ; their costumes composed 
of silver gauze ornaments, with orange-flowers 
and splendid diamonds. Then came the bride, 
surrounded by her own women, followed by her 



THE bride's dress. 335 

mother and princesses of the blood, and another 
troop of dancing-girls. Next came the princess 
herself, moving slowly, with eyes cast down, and 
stopping a little at each step, as though to afford 
time for examination and admiration. 

The guests stood up as the princess advanced ; 
and as she passed along, girls, who were 
stationed on raised chairs behind the visitors, 
showered on them from baskets a quantity of 
small gold coins, struck off expressly for the 
purpose ; many of which, falling on the head or 
garments of the guests, lodged in their hair or 
dress. My informant, on disrobing at night, 
found £3 or £4 worth in value of those 
pretty keepsakes. The native ladies, who 
were aware of this Eastern custom, had doubt- 
less had their hair and garments prepared, so as 
to catch as much of the golden shower as 
possible. The magnificent saloon, draped in 
white satin and gold, ornamented with orange 
blossoms and roses, and blazing with innumer- 
able lights — the dazzling brilliancy of the dresses 
and ornaments of the bride and her attendants — 
formed a spectacle of splendour worthy of the 
" Arabian Nights' Entertainments," and such as 
cannot ever be witnessed in our Western and 
more prosaic climes. 

Three large chairs, covered with white satin, 
were placed on a raised dai's, and on these sat 



336 



THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 



the queen-mother, the bride, and the mother of 
the bride. Worth, the famous man-milliner, 
was probably the maker of the bridal dress, which 
for execution was a marvel, and, apart from 
certain exaggerations, thoroughly Parisian in 
taste. It consisted of skirt, bodice, and train 
of the very richest white satin, and a tunic of 
the finest point lace. The train, five metres in 
length, was carried by white slaves, who were 
richly attired. The bodice was entirely covered, 
and the tunic looped, with splendid diamond 
ornaments; and on her head the bride wore a 
magnificent diadem, also of diamonds. So 
arrayed, she might indeed be a fortune in her- 
self, the value of her costume being something 
fabulous. Having received the felicitations of 
the royal and distinguished guests, she after a 
short time withdrew; returning to her own 
apartments with the same state and ceremonies 
as when she entered. The pageant over, the 
visitors descended to the first saloon, where 
refreshments again awaited them; and the 
ceremony concluded, they left the palace. 

But I fear I am treading on delicate ground, 
in thus peeping (even by proxy) behind the 
hareem curtains ; and, mindful of the fate of 
"Peeping Tom of Coventry," return to the 
more orthodox treatment of Khedivial hospital- 
ities, which are fast and frequent during U the 
season" at Cairo. 



KHEMVIAL ENTERTAINMENTS. 337 

The Khedive's entertainments comprise oreak- 
fasts, dejeuners a la fourchette at 12 a.m. 
(dinners in all but name) ; a formal dinner at 
7 p.m. ; soirees musicales et dansantes, to which 
ladies are invited ; and open-air entertainments, 
with pigeon-shooting, etc., to which ladies also 
are invited, given in the gardens of the Ghezireh 
Palace. 

His breakfasts and dinners are altogether a la 
Frangaise, with an enormous display of plate ; 
the letter " I " in gold, surmounted by a crown, 
being the only chiffre on the glasses, which have 
only a slight gilt rim, otherwise plain. Both the 
porcelain and crystal, and in fact the whole ser- 
vice, are in excellent taste. The native officials 
present at these entertainments are dressed 
and eat in European fashion. The wines are 
abundant, and of superior quality. The Khe- 
dive's "particular vanity," as Mr. Stiggins wou d 
say, seems to be Chateau Y'quem, though he is 
not disdainful of champagne on festive occasions. 
His balls and soirees (of which he usually gives 
several during the season), to which formal in- 
vitations are ordered by the chamberlains, may 
merit a short description, the place and persons 
figuring at them being considered. A sketch of 
one will convey an idea of all. 

At nine o'clock the company assembled in the 
new wing of the palace, where the Khedive 



338 



THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 



received the guests with his usual urbanity, con- 
versing with ladies and gentlemen, previously 
known to him, with much affability. About 150 
invitations outside of his immediate court circle 
had been issued, and all the nations of Europe 
were represented by richly dressed women, and 
men in the sombre suit which the nineteenth 
century renders de regie for full dress. 

About an hour was occupied in this reception 
business, and then the Khedive, with a lady on 
his arm, followed by the young princes, each 
escorting a lady, led the way into a long saloon 
prepared as a concert-room; where a concert was 
given by the best singers from the opera troupe, 
male and female. When this was over, the 
company moved back into the other apartments, 
of which there was a long suite. The chairs 
were removed from the concert-room, which was 
converted into a ball-room. The band struck 
up, and dancing began, which was kept up until 
long after midnight, when the doors of the 
supper-room were thrown open, and the cuisine 
vied with Terpsichore for a time. It was a very 
curious and picturesque sight, to see the trange 
blending of nationalities and costumes, Western 
and Eastern. The Khedive's officials and court 
were in gorgeous uniforms, their breasts spark- 
ling with decorations. Save the three young 
princes of the blood, the natives did not dance; 



A BALL AT AB-DIN. 339 

but these footed it right merrily with the fair 
foreign dames ; doubtless to the discontent of the 
grim grey pachas of the old school, who were 
there in considerable force ; since dancing, 
under the old regime, was considered not only 
effeminate, but disreputable throughout Islam, 
for either men or women of good character to 
indulge in. 

What the ladies of the hareem, invisible to all 
our eyes, though probably peeping through some 
chink at these performances, thought of them it 
is impossible to say ; but I should think that a 
mauvais quart d'heure may have awaited the 
young princes, on their return home to their 
hareems and their houris. The Khedive himself 
does not possess or nourish the fantastic toe ; 
his weight, both of person and character, pre- 
venting. The ball was kept up with great 
animation until the "wee sma' hours," the 
Khedive manfully holding his ground until the 
latest revellers had departed; being apparently 
as untiring in the pursuit of pleasure as of 
business. 

The Khedive can play the pleasing host 
admirably when his mind is at ease, and really 
seems to enjoy society generally, as a distraction 
from his graver cares, and the daily drudgery of 
his duties, which are unintermitting. But I 
remarked last winter that his gaietv was fre- 



340 the khedive's egypt. 

quently forced, his changes of mood too sudden 
to be natural; and that, in fact, on several of 
these occasions he seemed intensely "bored;" 
especially when pertinacious foreign representa- 
tives would button-hole him, and, leading the 
royal victim to a window, recall the recollection 
of his manifold perplexities, within earshot of 
the music and dancing. 

What his private opinion of, or reflections 
upon, foreign women or society may be, he keeps 
to himself; but I have little doubt that he 
breathes a sigh of relief when "the season" is 
over, and he can retire within himself at G-he- 
zireh, and enjoy such share of Eastern heff 
(repose) as his suzerain, the Sublime Porte, and 
the less sublime but closer consuls-general, and 
the unconfiding creditors, will permit Egyptian 
royalty to indulge in. 

The Khedive certainly believes in, and prac- 
tises the philosophy inculcated by a famous 
statesman, viz.: that the art of diplomacy 
centres chiefly in giving good dinners : and that 
the royal road to the heart is ever through the 
stomach ; and if lavish hospitalities to the 
foreigner could cover his shortcomings, political 
and financial, would stop their mouths in more 
ways than one. There is this to be said of his, 
as of other royal entertainments — they promote 
trade, and please the shopkeeping portion of the 



THE EOYAL KOAD TO THE HEAET. 341 

community, as well as the invited guests. All 
annual visitors to Cairo hope these hospitalities 
may continue, however much the Khedive's 
creditors may growl at them. 



342 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 



CHAPTEE XXI. 

THE SOUDAN. 

What and where is the Soudan ? — Its first annexation to Egypt — 
Conquest and occupation by Mehemet Ali — His visit there — 
Establishes Khartoum as its capital — Abbas Pacha's treatment of it 
— Said Pacha's visit — His proclamations — Attempts to connect it 
with Cairo, by rail and river — Eeasons of failure — Mr. Fowler's plan, 
adopted by the Khedive — Some interesting extracts from his reports 
— Present position and prospects of Gordon Pacha. 

The Khedive has been loudly denounced in 
Europe, for an insane ambition, in extending 
his explorations and annexations into Central 
Africa, and most loudly by those who know 
least about the matter ; who counting only the 
cost in cash expended, and the net results thus 
far obtained, consider his projects in that direc- 
tion as no better than idle dreams. Yet the 
Khedive did not create, but inherited these 
outlying provinces, to which indeed he has an- 
nexed others, and sought to annex more ; but 
his main purpose has been to make these depen- 
dencies of Egypt pay. 

Whether he has adopted the least expensive 



WHAT IS THE SOUDAN? 343 

or most judicious means of effecting this, is a 
question on which opinions must and will differ. 

Everybody has heard of Sir Samuel Baker's 
mission, of which he has himself, in his most 
interesting book, given such a graphic and 
exciting account. But the subsequent explora- 
tions of Gordon Pacha, through his " great 
talent for silence," which is habitual with him, 
as well as those of the American staff officers in 
the Khedive's service, are as yet sealed books, 
outside of the select circle of the Geographical 
Societies ; and are not even guessed at by the 
loudest denouncers of the Khedive's "waste 
of men and means " in Central Africa. I regret 
that it is not in my power to give definite 
details of these explorations, of which I have 
heard much orally, but have no other know- 
ledge of. It is said that Gordon Pacha's journals 
are in course of preparation by a competent 
hand ; and the report of Stone Pacha to the 
Khedive, which will be found in the Appendix 
(marked F), will prove that the staff officers have 
not been idle, nor returned with empty hands 
from their difficult and dangerous explorations. 

Hence it may not be out of place, in this book, 
briefly to sketch the origin and the peculiarities 
of these Egyptian acquisitions, from the time of 
Mehemet Ali, their first acquirer; as well as what 
has been done, or sought to be done, by sue- 



344 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

cessive viceroys in the Soudan ; which still, to 
most people, is nothing more r than a mere 
" geographical expression." 

The annexation of the provinces, constituting 
what is termed the Soudan, dates back more 
than half a century. After the destruction of 
the scattered relics of the Mamelukes in 
Dongola, and the defeat of the Arab sheiks, 
Mehemet Ah, thus master of Nubia, ordered an 
exploratory survey of the provinces of Sen- 
naar and Kordofan, and the countries remote 
from the two Niles, the White and Blue. This 
task he confided to Ibrahim and Ismail Pachas, 
giving each a large force. One expeditionary 
corps subjugated the country to the east as far 
as Fazougli, on the Blue Nile ; the other 
pushed on to the subjugation of the people 
bordering on the White Nile. They had hoped 
to acquire much gold, which was reported there 
in large quantities, but found but little ; and the 
washing of the river sands produced even less. 
Nevertheless, they brought back many slaves, 
and reduced Sennaar, and the tribes residing 
near the river, to Egyptian sway. 

In 1839 Mehemet Ali in person visited his 
new acquisition, going as far as Fazougli — after- 
wards made an African Cayenne ; banishment 
to which, in the days of Abbas, was considered 
equivalent to a death-warrant. 



SAID pacha's visit. 345 

Meliemet Ali established the capital of the 
Soudan at Khartoum, declared the navigation 
of the White Nile free, established military 
posts on both rivers, encouraged adventurous 
men of science to explore the country, and 
sought to introduce commercial ideas, and 
civilization, into the minds of the negroes of 
Central Africa. 

But his good intentions were frustrated by the 
perfidy and cupidity of those intrusted with 
then execution. The unfortunate negroes were 
made the objects of chase and of commerce by 
the slave-traders, and Khartoum became a slave- 
market. The consequence was that the natives 
rebelled, and were only held in check by 
military force ; and the taxes required a small 
army to collect them. 

" Such," says Dr. Abbate, who visited the 
country in 1857, in the suite of Said Pacha, 
" was the condition of the Soudan, when Said 
Pacha mounted the throne of Egypt. Agricul- 
ture almost abandoned, taxes out of all propor- 
tion to production or means, extortioners every- 
where ; the receipts of the Government barely 
sufficient to meet the expenses of supporting its 
authority, by reason of the military establish- 
ment which was essential; general disorder in 
the administration ; an open slave-trade, almost 
as openly protected by those in authority on the 
spot." 



346 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

Shocked at this state of the provinces, of 
which some rumours had reached him, Said 
Pacha, seized with one of his generous impulses, 
determined to go in person to right matters 
in the Soudan ; and as with him to resolve 
was to act, carried the design promptly into 
execution. 

Abhas Pacha had held on firmly to his 
authority in the Soudan, where he kept up 
always an imposing force, and exacted taxes 
from that unfortunate population, through terror 
and the unscrupulous agents he employed. It 
is more than probable however, that the 
expenses of keeping up an army in those 
provinces, which at the same time abstracted so 
much from the labour of Egypt (then as now 
insufficient, and rendered even more so by the 
necessity of sending troops to the Crimean war), 
amounted to as much, or more than the sums 
extorted from them in taxation, or by the com- 
merce in slaves. 

So the Soudan, for many years after its acqui- 
sition, was more an ornamental than a useful 
appanage to Egypt ; and although it has figured 
in recent Egyptian Budgets to the figure of 
£100,000 per annum, grave doubts may well be 
entertained as to whether, as an investment, it 
ever has yet paid ; taking into account the sums 
annually expended on its administration, and 



THE EOUTE HE TOOK. 347 

the cost of the expeditions of annexation or 
exploration, within or beyond its limits. 

Said Pacha had been two and a half years on 
the throne, when he conceived the idea of follow- 
ing in the footsteps of his father, by making a 
tour of inspection in these provinces, then only 
five in number ; and carrying out the purposes 
which Mehemet ALL had mapped out, but failed 
to have executed. 

It is honourable to the memory of Mehemet 
Ali to have conceived, still more worthy ol 
praise to his son to have executed, the reforms 
which partially rescued these provinces from 
the reign of terror and of barbarism, which 
seems to have been their normal condition, 
and from which they have not yet entirely 
emerged. 

Early in the year 1857, Said Pacha carried 
out his design, and made a rapid tour through 
the Soudan ; leaving Cairo 27th November, 
and arriving at Khartoum 10th February of 
the next year, making the trip in about two 
months and a half. An army of 5000 men, fully 
armed and equipped, with baggage waggons, 
accompanied him half the way: so that it was 
supposed he meditated more annexations in that 
direction ; but he changed his plan, and fear- 
lessly went on without them. Arriving at 
Berber, he summoned the chief men, and ordered 



348 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

them to meet him at Khartoum ; he then ver- 
bally announced the abolition of slavery, ivithdrew 
his garrison from the town, and left the province 
under the guardianship of the governor. He 
then proceeded over the desert by Korosko to 
Khartoum, where he also summoned the notables 
of that neighbourhood ; and in four remarkable 
"orders," addressed to the new governors, ap- 
pointed by him over the five provinces of the 
Soudan — Sennaar, Kordofan, Taka, Berber, and 
Dongola — dated Khartoum, 26th January, 1857, 
laid down a charter of rights, and definition of 
their duties towards the Egyptian Government, 
characterized equally by liberality, justice, and 
wisdom, — by which, to use his own words, he 
sought "to insure the prosperity of the people, 
to improve their condition, relieve them from 
unjust burdens and abuses of those in authority, 
and at the same time point out their duties to 
them." 

"When," says this generous viceroy, "visit- 
ing my provinces of the Soudan, I have seen 
the wretchedness into which the population 
has been plunged, by excessive impositions on 
their lands and salcJcias (water-wheels), and 
especially their sufferings under the corvees 
(compulsory labour) and unjust taxes, I at once 
decided that justice demanded the abandonment 
of such a system, and that henceforward tax- 



HIS PROCLAMATIONS. 349 

ation should be apportioned to the means of the 
tax-payers ; so that all apprehensions might be 
calmed, the country prosper, and no reason 
longer exist either for complaint, or expatriation 
on the part of its inhabitants." 

Opening with these truly generous and princely 
promises, he then laid down the details of ad- 
ministration and taxation which, in his judg- 
ment, would secure them ; and named new 
officials to carry them into effect ; adding, " It is 
also a matter of urgent necessity, as well as my 
earnest wish, that regular and speedy communi- 
cation should exist between the Soudan and my 
capital. You must therefore at once organize a 
postal service by dromedaries across the desert " 
— going on to give specific directions as to how 
it should be done. These admirable "orders" 
conclude with a promise, that if succour be 
needed from Cairo, from invading enemies, 
they might rely upon it when they called; 
and that if the inhabitants had good reason 
to complain of the governors, or the sheiks 
subordinate to them, " no guilty man should 
escape punishment." 

Having performed these acts of justice and 
good administration with his usual impetuosity, 
Said Pacha returned to Cairo; and this, pro- 
bably the most disinterested and patriotic act 

of his short life, and shorter reign, has left not 

Q 



350 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

even an echo behind it, either in Egypt or in 
Europe.* 

Said Pacha also conceived the project of 
uniting his provinces to the central seat of his 
power, by railway or canal ; and detached the 
French engineer, Mougel Bey, famous for his 
connection with the barrage and Suez Canal, 
to examine the best means of doing so ; and also 
sent surveying parties to examine the possibility 
of removing the obstructions in the Higher Nile, 
but was deterred by the expense of these under- 
takings. 

The idea was then abandoned, but in 1865-66 
the present Khedive revived it ; and a general 
study of the country, with a view to a railway, 
was made between Assouan and Khartoum by 
Mr. Walker and Mr. Bray; but little came of it. 

In 1865 Mr. Hawkshaw, the eminent engineer, 
was consulted by the Khedive as to the canaliza- 
tion of the first cataract, and recommended the 
prosecution of that work. Mr. Fowler, whose 
opinion must carry greater weight from his per- 
sonal survey of the spot, suggests that had Mr. 
Hawkshaw visited Assouan, he would have 

* For the particulars of Said Pacha's visit to the Soudan, I am 
indebted to the instructive and able account of it by Dr. Abbate, 
of Cairo, an eminent physician and man of science, who was 
attached to the viceroy's suite during the expedition. His " Notes " 
of the tour (published by Plon, of Paris, in 1858) will richly repay 
perusal. 



THE SOUDAN RAILWAY. 351 

" shrunk," as he does, from the unknown cost 
and consequences of excavating the large 
quantity of excessively hard rock, which must be 
encountered in the excavation of a canal, " of 
which no trustworthy estimates can possibly be 
made." Mr. Fowler's substitute is " simply to 
use the mechanical powers of the descending 
waters of the cataract, to draw the boats along 
a ship-incline overland, between the top and 
bottom of the cataract." Between the recom- 
mendations of two such high authorities in such 
matters, the Khedive has found Mr. Fowler's 
recommendation the best. 

Some years later, early in the year 1871, the 
Khedive called on the well-known English engi- 
neer, Mr. John Fowler, who had become Con- 
sulting Engineer-in-Chief in the Egyptian ser- 
vice, to make detailed surveys and estimates, 
and report on the question of communication 
with the Soudan. In accordance with those 
orders Mr. Fowler sent out, with full instruc- 
tions, a staff of experienced surveyors, who spent 
five months between the first cataract and 
Khartoum, bringing back full surveys and sec- 
tions, and much useful information bearing on 
the point. Under these surveys the present 
projected Soudan Eailway has been commenced, 
and is already partially completed on the plan 
proposed by Mr. Fowler, which embraced — 



352 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

1st. A railway from Wady * Haifa to Shendy. 

2nd. A ship-incline at the first cataract. 

This plan Mr. Fowler has since modified, in 
1877, by diverting the route and terminus from 
Shendy to Khartoum, laying down a single line 
of rails from Wady Haifa, near the second 
cataract, to Khartoum — the total cost of which 
has been estimated at £3,430,000, rolling stock, 
stations, and accessories necessary for working 
the traffic included. This line is among the 
possibilities of the future, dependent chiefly on 
the financial condition of the country. 

In an extremely elaborate and interesting 
report made to the Khedive by Mr. Fowler in 
1873, the route to be taken by the railway as 
then projected, together with the local and 
general objects of the work, and the traffic to 
be expected, are set forth with great fulness of 
detail.^ In Mr. Fowler's opinion, "the expor- 
tation of ivory and other Central African pro- 
ducts will be increased and facilitated by such a 
railway; but they will sink into insignificance 
when compared with the grain, sugar, and 
cotton, which will be produced and exported 
from the vast alluvial plains of the Soudan." 
Mr. Fowler then proceeds to show how such a 

* The wadys are ravines cut out by water running down from the 
desert plateau to the river, when sudden floods pour down during 
tropical storms. They are of s;rcat depth and extent, and very 
numerous. 



TRAFFIC FROM KHARTOUM. 353 

railway, with, the addition of a ship-incline over 
the first cataract, with a service of light steamers 
connecting Wady Haifa with the present ter- 
minus of the Egyptian railways near Ehoda (the 
Soudan Eailway being extended to Massowah in 
the Bed Sea), might shorten by three days 
the route to India, China, and Australia, and 
avoid the dangers and inconveniences of a part 
of the Eed Sea passage. The chief traffic to be 
expected, after establishment of the railway, will 
be grain, sugar, cotton, gums, senna, dates, 
ebony, skins, gold, ivory, ostrich feathers. The 
return traffic southward would be cotton goods, 
machinery, cutlery, tobacco, coffee, rice, earthen- 
ware, beads, etc. 

The present mode of conducting the traffic 
from Khartoum, its great centre, involves five 
changes in transit from Khartoum to Cairo — the 
cargoes being taken in native boats down the 
Nile, at Aboo Hammed; whence it is taken 
across the Nubian desert on camels to Korosko ; 
again transferred to boats and carried down to 
the first cataract ; thence on camels to Shelal, 
to Assouan ; thence again in boats down the 
Nile to Boulak, the port of Cairo. From the 
Kordofan and Darfour districts a similar system, 
involving as many changes, has to be adopted. 

The improvement of the river having been 
found impracticable, the railway scheme, in con- 



354 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

nection with some plan for the passage of the 
first cataract, has engaged the attention of the 
Khedive and his engineer-in-chief; resulting 
in Mr. Fowler's recommendation of a railway 
of 3ft. Gin. grade, avoiding tunnels altogether, 
with very small quantity of rock-cutting, 
and, with the exception of a bridge across 
the Nile, no considerable work of difficulty 
on the whole line. Mr. Fowler concludes by 
saying, " I see no reason why every part of 
the railway, except the permanent way, rolling 
stock, and Nile bridge, should not be performed 
by Egyptians, under proper organization ; the 
work to be completed within three years from its 
commencement." The cost of the ship-incline 
and its adjuncts Mr. Fowler estimates at 
£200,000, and the time for its completion one 
and a half years. The latter should, if possible, 
precede the construction of the Soudan Kailway, 
so as to give increased facilities for general 
intercommunication, and transport of men and 
materials. -Mr. Fowler also states as " one of 
the national benefits to be conferred by this 
great work, the facility of transporting, under 
proper regulations, the surplus labour from Equa- 
torial Africa to the cultivated districts of Egypt." 
I give these as the views of this experienced 
and eminent engineer, without endorsing or dis- 
cussing them, for the purpose of showing the 



THE hunter's paradise. 355 

inducements and the purposes for which this 
Soudan Railway has been projected. 

The wadys, the rains, the floods the drift 
sands, the desert, and the white ants, are the 
chief obstacles the engineer will have to en- 
counter, not to mention the wandering Bedouins, 
the Rob Roys of Africa. 

The plague of ants, those apparently insig- 
nificant but really terrible enemies to man and 
his work in Central Africa, is thus described by 
Mr. Fowler's engineer : " Along the whole route 
(from Om-Badhr to El Fascher) white ants are 
very numerous. All kinds of wood are eaten; 
even the largest trees totally destroyed. Ordi- 
nary wood sleepers for railways would not last 
more than a few weeks. Ant-hills abounded, 
some of which were four feet high and three feet 
in diameter ; but eighteen inches in height 
would be the general average." 

This country is the paradise of the hunter, 
all species of game, from the lion and leopard to 
the hare and antelope, being abundant. The 
locusts abound here, and are eaten by the natives ; 
while birds, from the ostrich and guinea-fowl to 
wild duck and snipe, equally abound. Cotton 
is grown in small quantities, but it is small and 
coarse. The staple food of the whole people is 
dulcu, a somewhat similar plant to the dhoura of 
Egypt. It is smaller and not so sweet as the 



356 THE -KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

dhoura, but an excellent food. The country is 
well wooded, but the timber is small and only fit 
for fuel, four inches in diameter being the 
average size of the main stems. In the wadys 
near Khartoum, sheep, goats, and cattle abound ; 
there is good land, but cultivation is small for 
want of settled labour. 

Mr. Fowler thus concludes his report : — " I 
should have been better satisfied if, before con- 
cluding this report, I could have added a calcu- 
lation as to the precise amount of traffic and 
revenue to be expected from the railway. The 
largest portion of the traffic, however, as pre- 
viously explained, will only exist after the ac- 
commodation for it has been provided, and 
therefore any calculation must depend on the 
assumption of figures for which there are not, 
nor can be, any existing data 

" In the particular case of the Soudan Bail- 
way and its probable traffic, it is a fact which 
cannot be disputed that the extent of land near 
its southern terminus, or within reach of it by 
navigable waters, or land carriage, which is 
capable of producing the finest crops of cotton, 
grain, and sugar, is practically unlimited ; and 
that during the time requisite for the construc- 
tion of the railway, such area may be brought 
into cultivation as will furnish immediate and 
considerable traffic. 



EXPLORATION AND ANNEXATION. 357 

" The vast quantities of timber of various 
kinds which will become cheaply accessible to 
the proposed railway will supply fuel to the 
locomotives for a long period of time, and one of 
the most important items in the working ex- 
penses of the railway will thereby be largely 
reduced. 

"Assuming the working expenses of the 
Soudan Eailway to be sixty per cent, of the 
gross receipts (which is seven per cent, higher 
than the average working expenses of all the 
Indian railways), it can scarcely be doubted that 
the traffic from the local and through sources 
enumerated will yield a satisfactory return upon 
the small cost of the proposed railway, Under 
any circumstances, a large increase to the 
national wealth of Egypt must necessarily 
follow such an opening up of its undeveloped 
resources." 

From the statements of this experienced 
engineer, it will be seen that the trade which is 
to pay for the construction and maintenance of 
this road will have chiefly to be created by it. 

During the reign of' the Khedive immense 
strides in Central African exploration have been 
made, with his assistance, and by his employes, 
both European, American, and native. Within 
the last four years Darfour has become a part 
of Egypt ; the White Nile has been thoroughly 

Q2 




368 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

explored and made navigable ; the great equa- 
torial lakes and the surrounding country have 
been traversed by the feet, and reported on by 
the ready pens, of the Khedive's adventurous 
emissaries, and efforts made to fix and define 
the very disputed boundary between Egyptian 
and Abyssinian soil. Colonels Colston, Purdy, 
Mason, and Prout, American staff officers, with 
Mitchell, the geologist — recently a captive in 
Abyssinian hands, but now liberated — have made 
very thorough explorations on different lines in 
the interior; the latter having discovered two 
ancient gold mines, the shafts still open, be- 
tween the Nile and the Eed Sea, near Kennar. 
Several steamers are now plying on the Nile, 
between Khartoum and Eagaff, above which the 
rapids render the river unnavigable. 

The Khedive has possession now not only of 
several ports on the Eed Sea, including Mas- 
sowah, but about two years since obtained a very 
important one in addition, by purchase, from the 
then impecunious Sultan — the port of Zeila, 
situated at the extremity of a peninsula on 
the Somala coast, which opens rich districts, 
producing coffee, gums, ivory, wool, etc., to 
Egyptian trade. 

The Abyssinian king, Johannes, has recently 
been keeping Massowah in a state of siege, and 
covets much the possession of that port, which 



EGYPT AND ABYSSINIA. 359 

would give him an . outlet to the sea, which 
Abyssinia much needs. The latest tidings from 
that point indicate that negotiations were going 
on, virtually giving joint possession of that port 
to Egypt and Abyssinia, for all practical pur- 
poses ; but as yet no treaty has been concluded. 

The Soudan has proved a graveyard for many 
governors and explorers, both foreign and native. 
Here perished the two Arakel Beys — father and 
son — the one falling a victim to the climate in 
early manhood, while governor at Khartoum, 
many years since ; the latter, as Governor of 
Massowah, accompanying the ill-starred expedi- 
tion of Arendrup, and slain with him. Here 
also was foully slaughtered Minzinger Pacha, 
whose name and reputation rank with those of 
Baker and Gordon Pachas, as pioneer and ex- 
plorer. Here, too, were left the mortal remains 
of the two gallant and promising sons of Linant 
Pacha, like the famous grenadier of Prance, 
their countrymen, dead on "the field of honour," 
in these fatal precincts. To give the long list of 
victims the climate and the barbarous natives 
have claimed, would make a long and mournful 
bead-roll. Let us hope that the new governor- 
general may enjoy better fortune than the great 
majority of his pioneers. 

Gordon Pacha, when last heard from, had 
reached Khartoum his seat of government, but 



360 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

was reported as having been threatened with 
annoyance from King Johannes, on the one 
hand, and King M'Tesa, on the other ; while 
Darfour was also said to be in revolt. To bind 
together the scattered sheaves of his province 
will require no small amount of patience, skill, 
and courage ; his friends claim all those qualities 
for him, and he has full power now to pursue his 
own policy. 

Could the railway communication be once 
completed and opened between Khartoum and 
civilization, his task would be rendered far 
easier, and the province be made profitable to 
Egypt, as well as more manageable ; until then 
the difficulties and dangers of his position can- 
not be overrated. 

The Budget report of 1873 puts down the 
receipts from the Soudan at £100,000. 

"History teaches us," says Mariette Bey, 
"that Egypt is. bounded on the north by the 
Mediterranean, on the south by the Cataract of 
Assouan. But history, in imposing these limits, 
has not taken into account the indications fur- 
nished by geographical or race peculiarities. 
Over the north-west portion of the African con- 
tinent stretches an immense zone of earth 
formed by the Nile, and fertilized by it alone. 
Scattered over its banks you find two different 
races, the one uncultivated, savage, incapable of 



EGYPT'S BOUNDARIES. 361 

self-government ; the other a nation worthy the 
world's admiration for its glory, its industry, and 
all the elements of civilization that it nourishes 
in its bosom. History should say that wherever 
flows the Nile, there her rights and her dominion 
should extend." 

The language of the eloquent Frenchman, who 
has done so much to bring Egypt's buried 
history and treasures to light, seems to convey 
the dominant idea of three generations of the 
line of Mehemet Ali, and to account for the 
trouble, labour, treasure, and life they have 
squandered on the exploration and annexation 
of the Soudan. If it be a dream, it surely is a 
great and noble one, to reclaim to law, culture, 
and civilization the rich tracts now rank and 
pestiferous with jungle, and the plains over which 
still roams, as in the days of Abraham, the 
wandering nomad, with his flocks and herds ; or, 
descending lower still, where man becomes a 
man-hunter, and preys on his own kind. The 
task to which Livingstone and so many other 
Christian men devoted their lives, surely cannot 
be unworthy of praise in a Mussulman ruler to 
attempt ; even though ambition and love of gain 
may mingle with his higher aspiration. 




362 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 



CHAPTEE XXII. 

IMPROVEMENTS AND PUBLIC WORKS IN EGYPT. 

Public improvements — Where some of the money has gone — General 
statement of public works and improvements during the present 
reign — Thirty or forty millions of pounds' worth accounted for — 
What and where are these improvements ? — Harbour and lighthouse 
improvements — Gas and water works — Merchant marine — Thirteen 
hundred miles of railway completed in last twelve years. 

The statement has been broadly made, and as 
recklessly repeated, in print and in speech, that 
the Khedive " has borrowed and raised ninety 
millions of money, and has nothing to show for 
it but a few lath and plaster palaces." 

Now, without attempting to act as the advo- 
cate of a prince, who certainly has been very 
wasteful of his own and other people's means, 
and has allowed his building mania to cumber 
the ground with a great many useless palaces 
for himself and family, justice compels me to say 
that the charge is as unjust and rash as it is 
false. This I shall proceed to prove by facts and 
figures accessible to every one who will take the 



PUBLIC WORKS. 363 

trouble to look tliem up. The truth, is that 
the improvements and public works begun and 
completed in Egypt during the past twelve 
years have been marvellous, and unequalled by 
any other country of quadruple the area and 
population of Egypt ; and they have been of 
such a character as hereafter to enhance im- 
mensely the resources and prosperity of the 
country. But twenty-five years ago Eobert 
Stephenson commenced the single line from 
Alexandria to Suez, little more than 230 miles 
in length. Now there are more than 1300 miles 
completed, and the Khedive is pushing his lines 
of railways and telegraphs into the very heart ot 
Central Africa. The Soudan line alone will be 
1100 miles long, if the engineer's plans be carried 
out ; but of course it will require several years 
to complete so great a work : even should this 
line be carried out on the grand proportions 
suggested by the engineer, which I doubt. 

1st. The completion of the Suez Canal, also 
was the work of the Khedive, although the heavy 
cost to Egypt was due to Said Pacha's impru- 
dent concessions, and the indemnity adjudged 
by the Emperor Napoleon while acting as arbi- 
trator. For these Ismail Pacha cannot justly 
be made responsible, the pressure put upon 
him being greater than he could resist. Still, 
that great work may hereafter indemnify the 



364 the khedive's egypt. 

country when it becomes the property of 
Egypt; as in justice it should, if Egypt should 
continue independent, and be sufficiently sol- 
vent, at the expiration of the term agreed on, 
to meet her obligations to the company and 
enter into possession. The alleged cost of 
this enterprise to Egypt is estimated in the 
Statistique — a Government publication — to have 
reached ,£10,000,000, and other estimates, in- 
cluding incidental expenses, interest, etc., run 
it up as high as £17,000,000. 

In other public works of more immediate 
utility to Egypt — such as the lighting the cities 
with gas, supplying water by means of exten- 
sive water-works, as well as pure air through 
street improvements — the reign of the Khedive 
has been a busy one, as well as in the extension 
of railway and telegraph lines, internal canals, 
docks., and lighthouses. 

All these expenditures, it will be seen, were 
made for a great public purpose, and constitute 
part of the capital of the country, and may be 
considered as good investments. "While Turkey 
has squandered the millions borrowed from 
Europe, and wrung from her own subjects, in 
extravagance and folly, in building palaces and 
buying ironclads exclusively, attending neither 
to the moral nor material advancement of her 
population or territory, Egypt can point to her 



COST OF EAILWAY CONSTRUCTION. 365 

great public works and improving people with 
just pride. Why Europe insists that Sinbad 
(Egypt) should carry on his back this " Old Man 
of the Sea" (Turkey), to the tune of £635,000 
tribute per annum, is a political mystery which 
may soon be solved, or dissolved. In the name 
of Justice and Progress we may rejoice that 
these Siamese twins can be cut asunder without 
danger to the living one : and without calling 
Eussia in to act as surgeon. Besides the great 
puhhc works enumerated, more than a hundred 
new canals have been dug for irrigation purposes, 
two-thirds of which are in Lower Egypt ; more 
than 500 new bridges built to facilitate trans- 
portation of the crops, one of which — that con- 
necting Cairo with the island of Ghezireh — is 
a magnificent engineering work. Both at Cairo 
and Alexandria are gas and water works, sup- 
plying those cities, and large gasometers. 

2nd. The cost of the railway constructions 
and repairs during the last twelve years may be 
estimated at about £10,000,000, and the fact 
that that portion of the public debt guaranteed 
by these railways is regarded and termed " a 
preference stock," proves that the investment 
has been a good one. 

3rd. The harbour works at Alexandria and 
Suez, which are of great utility, and promise to 
improve greatly the commerce of the country, 



366 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

have absorbed several millions more, possibly 
£3,000,000 or £4,000,000. It is calculated that 
the revenues of the port of Alexandria may be 
raised to £200,000 annually, which would pay 
a handsome interest on the outlay, when added 
to those of Suez. 

4th. The irrigating canals, several hundreds 
of miles of which the Khedive has made or 
improved during his reign, for the cost of which 
no statistics exist, must have absorbed much 
money ; though I fear a great deal of fellah flesh 
and blood went into them, too, for very inade- 
quate wages (if any), under the corvee system. 

5th. The lighthouses erected on the Eed Sea 
and Mediterranean coasts have supplied a great 
want to foreign and native commerce. Their 
cost has certainly been £200,000. The intro- 
duction of gas and water, improvements in 
sewerage, paving, and embellishment of Cairo, 
Alexandria, and Suez, are said to have cost 
£3,000,000 more. 

6th. A fleet of merchant steamers to ply 
between Egypt, Greece, and Turkey, which is 
said to have cost £1,500,000 ; and 

7th. The expeditions to Central Africa, and 
the Abyssinian campaign — works of dubious 
necessity and of no immediate utility — doubt- 
less swallowed up £2,000,000 more. 

So that, even from this rapid and imperfect 



OTHER PUBLIC WORKS. 367 

summary of public improvements, accomplished 
within the last decade, it will be seen that the 
Khedive really has something to show, more 
than his palaces, for the millions expended ; 
although even his best friend or most obsequious 
flatterer cannot venture to say he has shown 
much judgment, or a proper sense of his own 
means and those of the country, in many of the 
works he has undertaken, or completed. 

He can show public works to the value of 
£20,000,000 or £30,000,000 for his twelve years' 
administration of the country, as a visible proof 
that, although he may have squandered some 
of the public money, he certainly has not 
thrown half of it away in ostentatious personal 
extravagances. Immense improvements also 
have been made in the public roads leading 
out of Cairo and Alexandria, as well as in the 
streets of those cities. The roads around Cairo, 
for example, and the bridges in that neighbour- 
hood are worthy of all praise, and must have 
cost much hard cash, as well as indirectly 
through the labour employed upon them, even 
granting the labourers were not paid in money. 

That Egypt is able to-day to astonish the rest 
of the world by the immense revenues she is 
able to dig out of her small area of soil — for all 
the money must come out of the land — is due in 
great part to the improvements made inirriga- 



368 



THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 



tion and railway extension, which at once greatly 
increase the produce of the soil, and render 
transportation of produce much quicker, easier, 
and less costly than it used to be. This much, 
I think, is due to the Khedive to admit, what- 
ever his sins or his shortcomings may have been 
as a ruler and a financier, and however much of 
public money he may have wasted in needless 
extravagances for his own or his children's 
luxury or state. 



CHAPTEE XXIII. 

THE AEMY OF EGYPT. 

An indeterminate quantity — Curious exemption of Cairenes and Alex- 
andrians from conscription — How the conscription is made — What 
successive viceroys have done for the army — The army and the 
military chest — Excellent drill and organization of the forces — The 
American and other foreign officers — The Khedive's true, and 
Egypt's wisest policy. 

The Egyptian army has always been a kind of 
indeterminate quantity, concerning which hut 
little was allowed to he known to the world at 
large, or outside the immediate circle of the 
chief military men who controlled it. 

Until 1873 its number was jealously limited 
by the Sublime Porte ; but the persuasive powers 
of the Khedive, backed by the potential argu- 
ment of "backsheesh," which insured his own 
elevation in rank and title, the direct line of 
succession, and his independence of Constan- 
tinople in so far as the internal administration 
of Egypt was involved, obtained also the con- 
cession of raising his army to any number that 
pleased him. 



370 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

Of this permission the Khedive has made no 
great use thus far; having rather diminished 
than increased his effective force, as far as the 
facts can he known ; and having returned to the 
cultivation of the fields, " on leave," large 
bodies of his soldiers, substituting for them in 
part the black recruits from the Soudan. 

One peculiar feature of the Egyptian army is 
the incorporation of the native Christian element 
in its ranks ; the levies from Upper Egypt being 
drawn chiefly from the Copt Christians, who con- 
stitute a considerable portion of the population 
in some of the provinces of Upper Egypt — many 
of the villages, especially on or near the Nile, 
being peopled by them. These men do not 
regard this exceptional mark of their equality 
with their Mussulman countrymen as a great 
favour : being a peaceful race, and preferring 
tranquil to warlike pursuits. Nevertheless the 
fact is not without its significance, as it shows 
the desire of the Khedive not to keep up 
invidious discriminations, prevailing everywhere 
else throughout the Ottoman dominions. 

Another noteworthy peculiarity — although 
one of exclusion — is the exemption from military 
duty extended to the inhabitants of the two great 
cities of Alexandria and Cairo, in virtue of an 
ancient privilege exempting them from bearing 
arms. The reason for which this exemption was 



CURIOUS EXEMPTION. 371 

granted, I have not been able to discover ; but 
in a country, and among a people, where custom 
has the binding force of law, the antiquity of the 
usage suffices to insure its perpetuation, even 
under a rule as absolute as that of the Khedive. 
Thus at least one-tenth of the population are 
exempted by this curious privilege from the con- 
scription which, outside of the foreign element, 
is theoretically universal in its application to all 
classes and creeds of the community. 

The exemption is unjust to the native popu- 
lation on many accounts ; and because it throws 
the burden of this injurious system of recruiting 
on the rural population exclusively. The cities 
contain the great bulk of the element alien in 
blood and birth to Egypt — the trading, shop- 
keeping, and servant class, who drift into the 
cities from neighbouring countries. 

Thus in Cairo you find a large population 
composed of an almost infinite variety of races, 
who should bear the burdens, as they enjoy the 
benefits, of the Egyptian Government; Euro- 
peans, who are protected by the capitulations, 
alone excepted. 

Thus, at Cairo and Alexandria you see num- 
bers of -' Syrians, of Copts, of Armenians, of 
Israelites, of Berbers, of Nubians, of Abys- 
sinians, rayah Greeks, and Turks, all of whom 
numbering probably 150,000, are exempted 



372 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

from conscription in these two cities alone. 
This is one among the many unaccountable 
anomalies of the Egyptian administration. If 
you inquire of a high functionary why this 
custom is allowed to continue, he shrugs his 
shoulders and answers, " Who knows ? It was 
always so." 

Apart from these exceptional cases however, 
the conscription is sternly enforced elsewhere, 
and theoretically with impartiality; but King 
Backsheesh can always interpose successfully 
here, through the venality of the agents em- 
ployed, who always "make a good thing of it;" 
and hence the draft ever falls on that portion of 
the able-bodied population most wanted for the 
cultivation of the fields, especially in the upper 
country, where the population is sparse. Yet it 
is on this section that the twin abuses of Egyp- 
tian administration — the conscription and the 
corvee — weigh most heavily on the industrious 
poor, who cannot buy exemption through in- 
fluence or money. In addition to the blinding 
effects of backsheesh on the recruiting officer, 
the recruit is allowed to return from service 
after one year's duty, on payment of a fixed 
sum. 

As there are no territorial commands, or peace 
organizations into brigades and divisions, as in 
European armies, the system, or want of system 



CRUELTIES OF CONSCRIPTION. 373 

in the military organization, can be easily com- 
prehended by military men. 

There may be some pretence at rotation, and 
as to an annual contingent; but in reality the 
conscription is enforced "by superior orders," 
whenever the whim or the necessity for more 
soldiers is felt by the Khedive; and then the 
conscription is carried out much on the old 
system, so often described by indignant tourists, 
who have seen gangs of apparent convicts, 
chained together, and driven by soldiers to the 
place of embarkation, escorted by howling and 
shrieking women, who see with them their 
daily bread and that of their children taken 
away. Those unpleasant sights and scenes have 
not yet vanished from the Egyptian soil, either 
for conscription or corvee; but it is high time 
that they should; if reform is to be more than 
a hollow show nd a mockery. 

The acquisition of the Soudan has brought 
some alleviation to the lot of the fellah, inas- 
much as the savage blacks of Central Africa 
have been found to make good soldiers ; and you 
now see whole regiments of these, who have 
replaced the agricultural labourer, wisely sent 
home to till his fields and take care of his 
family. This is the first actual benefit accruing 
to Egypt from these acquisitions ; and it may 

be greatly extended, by drawing on that savage 

R 



374 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

swarm of humanity — warriors by instinct — and 
releasing the gentle fellah from a duty, for 
which neither his nature, nor any amount of 
training can fit him. The secret of the domi- 
nation exercised over the Arab race by a mere 
handful of Turks, in garrison towns through- 
out Egypt and Syria, establishes this truth in- 
contestably. 

The successors of the warrior kings, Mehemet 
Ali and Ibrahim, have made efforts to keep up 
an army of respectable proportions, in so far as 
the jealousy of the Sultan would permit. Abbas 
kept up more than the regulation number, in- 
cluding a large force to overawe the Soudan, and 
the contingent sent to the Crimea ; at one time 
said to have risen to 100,000 men. 

Said Pacha, in the early part of his reign, 
" played soldier " a good deal ; but failing health 
and ^other causes induced him to neglect and 
greatly diminish his soldiery, in the latter part 
of it, until it is said to have dwindled down, 
in peace times, to about 5000 men (the war 
strength to 15,000) actually under arms, or im- 
mediately available. The Khedive has been 
busy in this, as in all other matters of internal 
administration ; though what the actual strength 
of his army has been, or may now be, is known 
only to the Chief of Staff, Stone Pacha, who can 
keep a secret as well as any man alive. 



THE ARMY OF EGYPT. 375 

Theoretically the military force of Egypt con- 
sists of — 

1. The regular army, with its reserve. 

2. Irregular or local troops. 

3. The gendarmerie, uniformed and mounted. 

There are stated to be eighteen infantry regi- 
ments, of three battalions each ; four battalions 
of rifles ; four regiments of cavalry ; and 144 
guns — among them some large Krupps and 
Armstrongs. 

The number of men in the regiments and 
batteries varies so much, in consequence of con- 
stant practical disbandments (in the shape of 
leave, when the military chest is empty, as it 
often is), that it is impossible even to guess, at 
any time, as to the actual effective force of the 
Egyptian army. 

Of their admirable training, drill, and disci- 
pline, under the supervision of the exceedingly 
able staff of American, and other foreign officers, 
in the Khedive's service, as well as of the 
instruction given officers in the polytechnic 
schools, foreign military observers speak most 
highly; and the fact is obvious to the most 
careless observer, as these troops march past the 
hotels. A finer looking soldiery can be seen 
nowhere ; and that some of the native officers 
at least are clever, an inspection of their drill, 
and a visit to the monthly seances of the Geo- 




376 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

graphical Society, where one of them occasion- 
ally reads a report of his explorations, will prove 
to the most prejudiced stickler for caste and 
colour. 

I am told that at present their weak point is 
in their officers ; but my own private opinion is 
that they are not the stuff good soldiers are 
made of, except the Soudanese, and had better 
be devoted to the arts and pursuits of 'peace, 
than to the right royal trade of murder by 
wholesale. 

The infantry are chiefly armed with the 
Eemington rifle ; and of arms and ammunition 
the Khedive has laid in so abundant a store, 
as to have sent millions of fixed ammunition to 
Constantinople as a present, in addition to his 
contingent of troops and their supplies. 

Each cavalry regiment is armed partly with 
the lance, partly with the carbine. 

The irregular cavalry is supplied by the 
Bedouins, who furnish their own arms and 
horses, and are commanded by their own chiefs. 
They resemble the Cossacks in appearance, and 
in more particulars than one. 

We learn from foreign sources that 
" Nothing more than a rough estimate of the 
Egyptian army is possible, but it has been 
calculated that with regiments filled up from 
the reserves, the fighting strength of the regular 



THE KHEDIVE'S LITTLE WARS. 377 

army would be about 60,000, with 144 guns. 
There ( would remain a reserve of about 30,000, 
and an irregular force of possibly 60,000 more ; 
but the probability is, that the strength of the 
army would entirely depend at any given 
moment on the amount of money in the posses- 
sion of the Khedive at the time and the con- 
scription three years previously." 

As far as I have been able to pick up any 
information on this jealously guarded secret, the 
above estimate is in the main correct. 

The chief use of the Egyptian army, outside 
of the " gendarmerie," or local police force 
(which is well armed, uniformed, and disciplined, 
and preserves peace and order admirably), is for 
the protection of the frontier against the 
desert Bedouins on the one side, and from the 
Abyssinians on the other ; both of whose raiding 
propensities are very great, and require to be 
constantly kept in check. 

I do not propose here to enter into a discus- 
sion on the Khedive's little wars with his 
neighbours, which I sincerely believe were forced 
upon him, as he is more a man of peace than a 
man of blood ; but those who are curious con- 
cerning the last and most costly of them, will 
find a truthful account of it, taken from the 
notes of a staff-officer, in the July number of 
Blaclctuood's Magazine, in which the whole story 



r^ 



378 



THE KHEDIVE'S EQYPT. 



is intelligibly and impartially told. It is pro- 
bable, however, that this disastrous experiment 
will not soon be willingly repeated by the Khedive. 

The duties of the foreign staff-officers are not 
confined to the drilling and instruction of officers 
and privates, and organization of the army. 
They have been busily and usefully employed 
in the work of exploration in the Soudan, and 
elsewhere ; and have done immense service in 
ascertaining and reporting on those portions of 
the Khedive's Egypt, of which little or nothing 
was previously known. The report of the Chief 
of Staff, Stone Pacha (as yet, I believe, un- 
published), to be found in the Appendix, will 
show where they have gone, and what they 
have done.* 

In a letter from one of those officers to me, he 
says : — " Egypt is abused for spending money 
on the Soudan Kailway; but the reconnoitring 
officers find hundreds of thousands of cattle, fat 
and sleek. Now, when the railway shall be 
finished to Dongola, in three or four years, that 
station will be within easy driving reach of those 
vast herds, and instead of importing many 
thousands of thousands of cattle every year from 
Greece to Turkey, Egypt can bring down her 
own cattle from her own provinces, and that so 
cheaply that she might even export cattle to 
Europe." 

See Appendix F. 



THE KHEDIVE'S TEUE POLICY. 379 

The Khedive is shrewd enough to see and 
know that the safety of his patrimony, and 
integrity of Egypt, do not depend on and could 
never be protected by arms alone ; but rest on 
the determination of the Great Powers of Europe, 
who gave and can take away his heritage, should 
they ever deem it necessary to change the 
Egyptian status for selfish or for State motives. 
He further understands, better than most 
princes, the wisdom of the saying of Lysander, 
that "when the lion's skin is too short, it may 
be eked out by the fox's ! " and both his precept 
and his practice have accorded with this ancient 
maxim: which possibly he never heard of, though 
he has acted upon it. 

In European jealousies lies Egyptian safety — 
not in arms or armaments, nor in the wish or 
will of the dying dotard at Constantinople, 
whose ominous shadow has so long veiled the 
light and life of Egypt, the blood of whose 
peaceful people is even now being poured out on 
foreign battle fields, that the waning Crescent 
may not utterly disappear from the Western 
sky. 

If Ismail Khedive is wise, he will turn his 
attention henceforth more to the arts of peace 
than to those of war ; although he does well in 
keeping up a sufficient force for the internal 
protection of his territory and people, against his 



380 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

lawless border neighbours ; and in securing the 
best military talent from abroad, to make a 
small but efficient army do the duty of a larger 
one. 






CHAPTEE XXIV. 

THE SHADOW OF THE STRANGER. 

Egypt's experience — Her three periods : Pagan, Christian, and Mus- 
sulman — International jealousies — Shall the Mediterranean be a 
French or English "lake"? — Curious history of this rivalry in 
regard to the overland transit — Cost to Egypt of conciliating 
the rival nationalities — Mariette Bey's characterization of the 
Egyptians — The irony of their destiny — The shadow of the stranger 
eclipsing native government — Laissez nous faire ! 

Egypt, during her long life of many thousands 
of years, has passed through three periods : 
Pagan, Christian, and Mussulman. The first is 
supposed to have endured for upwards of 5000 
years, terminating a.d. 381 ; the second lasted 
259 years, ending a.d. 640 ; and the third com- 
menced at the latter period, and endures to the 
present time — Egypt continuing subject ever to 
Constantinople, until her quasi-independence 
was obtained by Mehemet Ali, and under many 
different phases, resolutely maintained by his 
successors. 

Her future lot, at this moment, he would 

indeed be a bold man who would venture to 

R2 



382 



THE KHEDIVE S EGtYPT. 



predict; for clouds and darkness now veil her 
horizon. 

During the reigns of successive viceroys, 
England and France have alternately exerted 
the greatest influence at the viceroyal court ; 
and until the fatal day of Sedan, the latter, 
assimilating more in character and language to 
the successors of Mehemet Ali, had certainly 
enjoyed the greatest favour, and shaped more 
visibly the political action of the viceroys. But 
since that disastrous time the star of France has 
waned, that of England risen on the Egyptian 
firmament ; until the wish or will of the British 
Cabinet has become a law unto Egypt, almost as 
binding as the ancient "laws of the Medes and 
Persians " were said to have been. 

How France and Frenchmen chafe at this, 
may be seen in their jealous insistance on more 
than equal representation on the new tribunals, 
for their nationality; as well as in the late 
financial arrangements, where if English agents 
have the collection, French agents have the 
control over the disbursement, of the public 
funds ; and whereas England sends to Egypt 
gentlemen skilled in public accounts, France 
sends her most practised diplomats, to be near 
the Khedive. 

This international jealousy is not confined to 
the two nations named, for it exists in other 



INTERNATIONAL JEALOUSIES. 383 

nationalities, who have, or suppose they have, a 
political or commercial interest in Egypt ; yet 
its greatest manifestation has hitherto come 
from the two great Powers, whose struggle for 
the last half century has been, whether the 
Mediterranean was to become a French or an 
English "lake." 

A curious exhibition of this feeling has just 
been made in France — . rendered rnore keenly 
sensitive by the sense of lost prestige and power, 
since she dashed herself against the German 
Colossus. 

Eeports having been generally circulated, of 
the initiation of negotiations between England 
and the Porte, for the purchase of the eminent 
domain in the land occupied by the Suez Canal, 
the Moniteur (always regarded as the mouth- 
piece of the existing Government of France) 
published conspicuously the following remark- 
able comment thereupon, towards the end of 
June in the present year : — 

" A rumour reaches us from London which, 
no doubt, is without foundation, but to which it 
appears to us important to call attention. It is 
said that the Ottoman Government has offered 
to make over to England for twenty-five millions 
of francs the Sultan's ' territorial rights ' over 
the Suez Canal. In the first place, we wish to 
remark that the Sultan has had no ' territorial 



384 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

rights ' in Egypt since 1840, when the Sublime 
Porte, with the assent and sanction of the 
Powers, made the viceroyalty of Egypt the 
exclusive and hereditary apanage of the family 
of Mehemet Ali. We will also add that the 
Khedive, as master of Egypt, and consequently 
of the territory which the canal goes through, 
has undertaken to l exploiter,' in common with 
the Suez Canal Company, the land on both 
banks of the canal for a period of ninety-nine 
years. It would be requisite, to realize this 
news- from London, to assume that, in the 
first place, the present Sultan should revoke the 
hereditary rights held by the Khedive since 1840 
with the sanction of the Powers ; and next, that 
a new code should permit a sovereign to sell, for 
his own benefit, the private estates existing in 
his empire." * 

The, significance of this note consists in its 
publication by the semi-official organ of the 
French Foreign Office. Its animus is evident ; 
and it truly represents French feeling in and out 
of Egypt. 

So long as the two Powers were in equipoise, 
successive viceroys were adroit enough to play 

* The key to this semi-official note is, most probably, the publica- 
tion, in the Nineteenth Century magazine, of Mr. Edward Dicey's 
very powerful article, advocating England's immediate appropriation 
of Lower Egypt and the Suez Canal, by purchase or otherwise, as a 
measure of national safety. 



AN EGYPTIAN STUMBLING-BLOCK. 385 

the one against the other, for their own protec- 
tion ; appealing to the outside Powers as make- 
weights. But recently, as before remarked, the 
one has preponderating influence ; and hence 
the ill-concealed jealousy of the other ; which 
hereafter may find anew its battlefield in Egypt, 
when Prance recovers from her present political 
eclipse in the Orient. 

One of the greatest stumbling-blocks in the 
path of Egyptian progress has been the necessity 
of conciliating, at very heavy cost, all the rival 
nationalities in Egypt, representing in all about 
100,000, out of her population of 5,500,000 ! For 
this small quantity of leaven is made to leaven 
the whole loaf, and swell enormously the annual 
Egyptian Budget, by the heavy additional 
expenditure imposed on Egypt, by the presence 
of the stranger on her soil. 

A shrewd observer, recently writing from the 
spot, has remarked that the great cost of the 
new reform measures has arisen from this cause, 
which "compels the Khedive to employ half a 
dozen persons to do the ivorh of one ! " citing the 
fact of twelve nationalities being represented on 
the judicial tribunals ; to which he might have 
added, that some of the most favoured of these 
have three or four to their share ; besides a 
crowd of minor officers of court. The same is 
the case as to the public debt commission, the 



386 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

railway, and other administrations. Very curious 
manifestations of this rivalry are constantly 
being made, adding greatly to the perplexities 
of the Khedive, and to the cost of his adminis- 
trations. It is difficult to see how this evil is to 
be done away with, so long as the causes for it 
exist, and Egyptians and Foreign Governments 
occupy the same relative positions. Yet, pro- 
bably, the permanence of the dynasty of Mehemet 
Ali has been due as much to the eternal inter- 
meddling and undying jealousies of the foreign 
Powers, in regard to Egypt, as to the ability of 
his successors, who certainly have played that 
card very skilfully, however much they may 
have erred as to other points of the game. To- 
day the necessity of continued interposition in 
Egyptian •affairs, both political and financial, 
seems to be inevitable ; in consequence of the 
existing complications, familiar to all the world. 
Whether the present anomalous condition of 
things .can continue ; whether an im/perium in 
imperio — through which a practically absolute 
ruler is divested of his authority and control 
over all his administrations, and his treasury, by 
a foreign commission, and a foreign judicial 
tribunal, appointed and paid by himself to sit 
in judgment on his acts — can be preserved in 
Egypt : and the grandson of Mehemet Ali be- 
long content to rest in this attitude before his 



THE SHADOW OF THE STRANGER. 387 

own people and the world, is a question that 
time alone can solve. 

The shadow of the stranger, projected over 
Egypt, now hides both the throne and the native 
administration. Whether it will ever again be 
removed, and throne and country pass under 
the protectorate of one, instead of many foreign 
Powers, or its present ruler resume the powers 
he has temporarily abdicated, with renewed 
prestige and replenished treasury, is an Egyptian 
riddle, more puzzling than any ever propounded 
by its ancient Sphinx. 

When the tardily appreciated, and unrewarded 
enterprise of Lieutenant Waghorn, had demon- 
strated the feasibility of the overland transit 
through Egypt, and England sought to utilize 
it by a line of railway from Alexandria to Cairo, 
Erench jealousy immediately strove to bar the 
way; and for some time did so successfully. 
Erom a curious pamphlet, published by an old 
resident of Egypt, in 1851, the following par- 
ticulars of this struggle are taken — rendered 
doubly interesting at this moment, in conse- 
quence of the impending struggle over the Suez 
Canal property, foreshadowed by several recent 
indications. The writer says :— 

" The first care of France, after the settle- 
ment of 1841, was to remove from the mind of 
Mehemet Ali the bad feeling he naturally 



388 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

entertained towards her, for the non-performance 
of those promises, on the reliance of which he 
had risked his very existence. It was a difficult 
task; but by working alternately on his amour- 
propre, and on his fears, she ultimately suc- 
ceeded. The most marked and delicate atten- 
tions were resorted to by Louis Philippe, and the 
members of his family ; while at the same time, 
the French employes in Egypt, and the French 
party in the native ranks, constantly held out 
that Great Britain had aggressive views upon 
Egypt, and that being the half-way house to 
India, she would never rest until she had made 
it her own. Her progress in India was con- 
stantly referred to, and her gradual steps from 
commercial relations to exclusive sovereignty 
and military possession, were daily urged upon 
the Pacha's notice. At the same time he was 
taught to believe, that France alone could save 
him from similar consequences, at the grasping 
hand of England. A host of Frenchmen were 
taken into his service, some of whom were to 
be met with in every administration ; many of 
them holding important posts, with the rank of 
pacha and bey ; and these, aided by such Turks 
and Egyptians as had received their education 
at Paris, established an all-powerful influence on 
the action of Government — an influence whose 
force was strained to the uttermost to thwart 



THE OVERLAND TRANSIT. 389 

any measure which seemed, in the most remote 
manner, to forward British interests. 

"To Great Britain the immense importance of 
railway communication between the two seas, 
was one of those occasions which seemed to call 
for the most energetic exertion of this influence ; 
nor did French jealousy fail to appreciate it. 
Accordingly, the opposition of France to this 
railroad, has ever been of the most determined 
nature. Its existence, or its non-existence, 
seemed the point on which her policy turned ; 
and eventually it became a question involving 
her support or her hostility. 

" Twice the French party succeeded in in- 
ducing Mehemet AH to abandon the project : 
although at one time more than thirty miles of 
rail were actually bought, and for fifteen years 
were lying unused in the Government stores. 

"It was the same party, and the same influence, 
which planned, and caused to be executed, the 
fortifications of Alexandria, and the whole sea- 
coast of Egypt. . . . 

"An English company had been formed for the 
transit of passengers and goods through Egypt, 
in connection with the steam communications 
to Alexandria and Suez. Great privileges had 
been granted it by the local Government ; a 
large capital was embarked in building station- 
houses in the desert, in providing steamboats, 




390 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

carriages, Horses, and other means of convey- 
ance. . . . Its growing importance attracted the 
jealousy of the French party, and its removal 
from English hands was decided upon. 

"They persuaded the Pacha, that the existence 
of so powerful a foreign company was detrimental 
to his interests ; and that some day it might 
become a stepping-stone for the aggressive views 
of Great Britain upon Egypt. The station- 
houses, they said, would • form the nucleus of 
forts, and the steamers on the Nile might, 
with little difficulty and upon some trivial pre- 
tence, be easily converted into vessels of war. 
With such arguments they persuaded Mehemet 
Ali to take the transit into his own hands, and 
partly by force, and partly by promises of large 
compensation, he became the proprietor. 

"These facts suffice to show to what extent the 
mind .of Mehemet Ali was held in subjection by 
his French allies. In return for this compliant 
submission to their authority, he received, it is 
true, more solid proofs of friendship than those 
conveyed in the shape of presents, flattery, and 
courteous attentions. They lent him their firm 
support at Constantinople ; and to the day of his 
death aided him in resisting every semblance 
of encroachment on that freedom of action, 
guaranteed to him, and his successors, by the 
firman of investiture. . . . 



FRENCH V. ENGLISH INFLUENCE. 391 

''During the lifetime of his grandfather, Abbas 
had invariably protested against the undue in- 
fluence of France ; and from the day he came 
into power, he resolved on relieving his country 
from so grievous an incubus. His first act was 
in that sense ; and after hiirrying through the 
form and ceremony of investiture at Constan- 
tinople, he no sooner returned to Cairo than he 
set to work in earnest. He commenced by dis- 
missing from his service, and pensioning off, a 
number of Frenchmen, and other Europeans, 
who for years had enjoyed the rank and drawn 
the emoluments of beys ; but the exact nature of 
whose duties it was difficult to define. Amongst 
his own officers there were many, holding high 
rank and important posts, who had been gained 
over, heart and soul to the views of France. 
These he recommended ' to retire to Constanti- 
nople ' " {i.e., banished). 

English influence at length prevailed, and the 
road was constructed ; and under the Empire, 
France patronized the Suez Canal, as a political 
equipoise. 

History repeats itself oftener in Egypt than 
elsewhere, and the old rivalry is neither dead nor 
sleeping to-day, as living men may see. In 
addition to the former rivalry, new ones have 
been created. Until the Eusso-Turkish war 
removed her representative from Cairo, Russia 



392 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

was busily agitating in Egypt, with the assistance 
of Panslavist envoys, whose correspondence has 
been intercepted and published. The new king- 
dom of united Italy, whose subjects almost equal 
those of France, and double those of England 
in Egypt, claims a consultative voice in the 
councils of the Khedive in all matters of foreign 
concern. Nor is there any foreign agent there 
who does not aspire to have his finger in the 
pie, and exert some influence at the Court to 
which he is accredited — the functions of consuls- 
general being purely political, except in cases of 
appeal from the action of their subordinates. 

Egypt seems to have been set apart by destiny 
as the battle-ground of races, and so continues 
still ; her native population having far less voice 
in her councils, and far less of the profits 
derived from their labour, than the " stranger 
within, their gates," of any alien race whatso- 
ever. And yet, there never was a race, as 
Mariette Bey has justly observed, more naturally 
conservative, and less disposed to strife, -than 
the native Egyptian is and ever has been from 
his earliest recorded history; which however 
has been a history of change and of struggle 
always, the tide of events sweeping Egypt, in 
spite of herself, into the turbid torrent of per- 
petual revolutions. 

"Egypt," says the close .and experienced 



"LAISSEZ NOUS FAIRE." 393 

observer of her monuments and history I have 
already cited, " through her admirable climate, 
which makes the mere act of living a luxury — 
through the fertility of her soil — through the 
gentle and docile character of her people, render- 
ing the introduction of the arts of civilization 
so easy — is par excellence the most conservative 
of countries. Aggression, and the impulse of ex- 
pansion and propagandism, so common to other 
races, are unknown to her ; and did not others 
come to disturb the tranquil repose which is the 
essence of her life, it is very certain she, of her 
own accord, would never stir to create agita- 
tions elsewhere. When she has been violently 
pushed into such movements, against her natural 
bent, they have proved but temporary; and it 
is always sure, whenever the final catastrophe 
comes, poor Egypt must prove the loser. 5 ' 

" Laissez nous f aire ! " (" Let us alone ") should 
be the motto, as it long has been the despairing 
cry of Egypt and her rulers; and until this 
perpetual meddling and muddling in her affairs 
ceases, and she is left to stand or fall alone, 
without so many super- service able friends 
pulling or pushing her in different directions, the 
shadow of the stranger will continue to shut out 
her sunshine from the natives of her soil. 



394 



THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



BY CAIEO TO EUROPE, VIA ALEXANDRIA. 

By rail from Cairo to Alexandria — Disturbing a hareem — The last of 
backsheesh — The country en route — Two rival capitals — How an 
Alexandrian feels at Cairo, and how a Cairene regards him — Some- 
thing about the Egyptian Brighton — Old and New Alexandria — The 
place and people — The different routes back to Europe — The Brindisi 
route — Picturesque old places on the Italian coast — The Moorish 
pirates — Through Italy — Bologna and its museum — La Belle France ; 
and adieu to Egypt. 

The communication between Cairo and Alex- 
andria is very intimate and constant, although 
the residents at, or near the latter city, affect 
to look down rather contemptuously on the 
former, as of mushroom growth, compared to 
their comparatively ancient colony, the nucleus 
and nest of the foreign settlement in Egypt. 
On the other hand, the Cairenes assume towards 
the Alexandrians, the patronizing and pitying 
demeanour, assumed by "fast" young gentle- 
men, on encountering the old friends of their 
parents, whom they regard as decidedly " slow," 
and ever treat with a mixture of deference and 



THE RAILWAY ADMINISTRATION. 395 

forbearance, which is very exasperating. This 
rivalry is curious to contemplate ; and Shep- 
heard's Hotel, where the English, and English- 
speaking element, most do congregate, affords 
daily exemplifications and illustrations of the had 
blood engendered between the commercial and 
Court centres, during the present reign. Before 
that time this rivalry and jealous feeling did not 
exist. Mehemet Ah, his son, and grandson, 
preferred Alexandria to Cairo ; and made it the 
capital. Abbas shunned both cities as much as 
he could, avoiding men and their haunts, that 
he might enjoy his own moody humour in the 
silence and solitude of his desert palaces. 

The railway carriages struck me as very shabby 
and dirty last year, and the general adminis- 
tration of the railway, which had passed into 
new and foreign hands, was thoroughly slovenly 
and exasperating, involving a great waste of 
comfort, time, and temper on a transit of about 
five and a half hours' duration, which ought 
to be four — the whole distance being but little 
over 130 miles. It really seemed to me, that 
this line was far worse managed, than it had 
been fifteen years before ; and although the 
heads may now be European, the hands (and 
very dirty ones) continually thrust into our 
railway carriage en route, were certainly those of 
Esau, not of Jacob — Egyptian, not European. 



396 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

The journey may be described as a short one, 
elongated by perpetual stoppages, each of which 
is of considerable duration, time counting for 
nothing in railway calculations on this line. 
The Suez Canal has hurt the railway lines, by. 
diverting the great bulk of the passenger and 
goods traffic, which used to be transported from 
Alexandria to Cairo and Suez, under the old 
overland transit route ; and the extension of the 
interior irrigating canals, also takes off another 
slice. The new Fresh- Water Canal to Ismailia 
will cut another large " cantle " off; and this 
may partially account for the general air of 
decay and dilapidation, which pervaded the 
entire service. 

The route to Alexandria has been so often 
described in the books of the Nile tourists, who 
write as they run, that it would only fatigue the 
reader to recapitulate the oft-told tale ; though 
there" are views, constantly being framed in the 
carriage windows, that would make the fortune 
of the painter, cunning enough to catch and put 
them down on canvas. But Ismail Khedive 
has spent time, money, and influence in build- 
ing up, and (as he thinks) beautifying Cairo, and 
has constituted it his capital and chief place of 
residence — rarely visiting Alexandria, where he 
also has palaces, or Eamleh, on the sea-shore 
near Alexandria, whose refreshing sea breezes 



THE EIVAL CAPITALS. 397 

might woo him to pass the sultry Egyptian mid- 
summer there. 

The gossip of Alexandria whispers that a 
superstitious dread keeps him away from the old 
city, because it has been predicted he is to die 
there ; and a belief in such predictions is rooted 
in the mind of every Oriental, whatever may 
have been his instruction or training : and can 
never be eradicated. 

Be this as it may, it is certain that he has 
ever smiled on Cairo, and given the cold shoulder 
to Alexandria, which resents the slight, and 
professes small affection for the Khedive ; and 
where, in fact, the foreign element is openly and 
bitterly hostile to the existing administration; 
partly through the conviction that he has 
already almost ruined the country, and them- 
selves with it, and partly because of his treat- 
ment of them and their beloved city. 

For, unlike the Cairene resident, who is only 
a transient person, as attached to the Court or 
some Government bureau, the Alexandrian has a 
strong feeling of nationality apart from that of 
his birth, owing to long residence and long 
association, stretching back to the commence- 
ment of the present century. To him, there- 
fore, the Cairene is but a parvenu; and 
although he visits Cairo through policy, or by 
business compulsion occasionally, he growls 




398 



THE KHEDIVE S EGYPT. 



at the city, and the Khedive, all the time he is 
there. 

At the grand new hotel, which is owned by the 
Khedivial family, and therefore patronized by 
" loyal" Levantines, yon respire the odonr of 
loyalty towards the Khedive, "and all that is 
his;" while at the Hotel d' Orient yon may 
fancy yourself in France, and at the Hotel dn 
Nil in the heart of the Ehineland — except that 
the tropical plants of its pretty garden conld not 
bloom on the banks of that renowned river. 

Leaving either of these hotels, by the express 
train at 8 a.m., yon are conveyed in an 
omnibns to the station in a cloud of dust, and in 
a few minutes are deposited on the platform of 
the station, in the midst of a howling but good- 
tempered mob of Arabs and Levantines, of all 
conceivable nationalities. 

The officious conductor of the omnibus regis- 
ters your luggage, (on which you are always 
heavily taxed for overweight, however small 
your valise may be), procures your ticket, and 
enters into a violent altercation with one of the 
railway officials about your seat in a carriage : 
insisting that as all others are crowded, one 
with the curtains drawn must be unlocked for 
your accommodation. High above the clamour of 
contending voices, you hear the word " hareem," 
and apprehending that you may share the fate 



AN EGYPTIAN BRIGHTON. 399 

of Orpheus, if yon intrude on the hidden houris, 
implore your officious champion to get you some 
other place. Upon this he closes one eye, and 
whispers mysteriously, "Backsheesh!" You 
deposit a coin in his hand ; he transfers it to the 
hand of the railway official; who, utterly oblivious 
of his previous statements, unlocks the door, 
ushers you into the empty carriage, and allows 
you the quiet enjoyment of all the seats, until 
another and similar performance is gone through 
on behalf of some other voyager, with similar 
results. 

In despite of the dust, the heat, the glare, 
the flies, and the ceaseless shrieking for back- 
sheesh of the dirty little imps that haunt every 
station, with their goolahs of water, oranges, 
and dried dates, on which the flies are ever 
feasting, at every station, you feel you are 
really passing through the Lotos-land, with its 
wonderful varieties of verdure spread over the 
map-like stretch of tableland, over which the 
camel and water-ox are patiently plodding, and 
the half-naked Egyptians, on donkey-back in the 
foreground, make pictorial. 

The first surprise awaiting the returning 
traveller is at Eamleh, which, from a small 
straggling sea-coast village of a hundred houses 
or cabins, has now grown into a large and 
densely inhabited town of many thousands of 



400 



THE KHEDIVE S EGYPT. 



permanent residents. There are no less than 
two railway lines passing through and to it ; 
and a large proportion of the foreign colony 
doing "business at Alexandria now live there 
winter and summer, going daily into the city, 
about four miles distant. Every possible 
variety of architectural caprice may be seen at 
Eamleh, which squatting down on the sandy 
sea-shore without trees, is all open to the 
view — from Khedivial palaces, built in utter 
scorn of all the orders of architecture, to Swiss 
chalets, square boxes, and houses of as confused 
plans, as the dreams engendered of undigested 
suppers. 

With the slight drawbacks of the absence 
of all verdure, and a blinding glare from the 
white sand all day, accompanied by a corre- 
sponding degree of heat (only rendered endurable 
by the stiff sea breeze), the absence of a casino 
or other place of public amusement, and the 
impossibility of doing much visiting until after 
sunset — I should suppose Eamleh might be a 
pleasant summer's resort for a person with a fine 
faculty for sleep. Seriously speaking, however, 
the place is a real godsend to the Alexandrians, 
from the healthy character of its position, and its 
refreshing sea breezes ; and I am told that the 
hotel of Beau Sejour there, is in every respect a 
most admirable one ; while the hospitality of its 



IMPROVEMENTS AT ALEXANDRIA. 401 

residents would relieve any defects there, did 
they exist The views from its high bluffs, of 
Alexandria and far out to sea, are very fine ; and 
those who know the place and people best like 
them most, which certainly is a good sign. 

On entering the railway station you see the 
first indications of Alexandria's improvement ; 
for it would be considered a remarkably fine and 
spacious one in any capital in Europe ; and 
everything is admirably systematized there for 
the safe and speedy transportation of passengers 
and their luggage to their hotels after arrival. 
As we drove through the principal streets to 
the Grand Plaza, on or near which are all the 
principal hotels, we remarked the great improve- 
ment and growth of the city in the last twelve 
years, in despite of the Khedive's small patronage 
of it ; for high and solid blocks of stone build- 
ings now occupy the spaces formerly void, or 
boasting only of small and shaky-looking houses, 
from the Eossetta gate down to the streets 
leading into the plaza. Around this plaza also 
improvement had manifested itself, in the shape 
of still larger and handsomer blocks of stone 
buildings, many of which are worthy of London 
or Paris. There was now a general air of fresh- 
ness and bustle about the place, contrasting 
strongly with the drowsy aspect borne by place 
and people in the days when Said Pacha was 



402 



THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 



viceroy, and laid out and planted the open space 
in the centre: now filled with trees and foun- 
tains, and whence old Mehemet Ali in bronze, 
seated on horseback, looks down paternally, yet 
grimly, on his favourite city. 

For more than thirty years past Alexandria 
has been substantially an European, not an 
Eastern city ; the only Oriental features it pos- 
sesses being its bazaars, which are by no means 
fair average specimens of the article, and a popu- 
lation about half Arab, comprising chiefly the 
labouring and small shopkeeping class. So that 
Alexandria, like Smyrna and many other cities 
of the Levant, disappoints the traveller freshly 
arriving in the East, from looking so European 
— resembling rather an Italian than an Eastern 
town. Yet there is a great deal to be seen, and 
more to be learned about the land and people of 
-Egypt, from old residents there, than the mere 
casual visitor would suppose. The evidences 
of capital in the buildings — chiefly owned by 
Europeans — and of wealth displayed in the 
houses and shops, are very striking ; and 
although for a succession of years, since the 
overtrading and high prices consequent on the 
American war, business pressure and bad times 
have prevailed there, and the merchants are 
gloomy as to their future, the place looks 
thriving and prosperous. 



THE TEADE OF ALEXANDRIA. 403 

I do not doubt that, as Said Pacha predicted, 
the Suez Canal has injured Alexandria, by- 
depriving it of the old transit profits, as much of 
Egyptian produce now passes out via Port Said. 
Yet the statistics show that Alexandria is still 
a busy port, and the costly improvements now 
making in her harbour may cause her to regain 
more than her lost ground, when completed. 

Alexandria, representing as it does most of the 
foreign trade of Egypt, yet does not embrace 
more than three-fifths of the entire movement 
from the Egyptian ports. 

This arises from the navigation from the other 
ports, chiefly from Port Said and Suez for direct 
transit, and from Damietta, Eosetta, and the Red 
Sea ports, which have the local traffic. Accord- 
ing to the Statistique de VEgypte, during the ten 
years intervening between 1863 and 1872 the 
number of vessels of all kinds entering the port- 
of Alexandria amounted to 32,433, giving an 
annual mean of 3*243, each of 390 tons. This 
number was an increase of more than a thousand 
vessels over the preceding decade, and chiefly in 
respect to steamers ; a tendency which the Suez 
Canal, and the improvement of the port of 
Alexandria, will cause to manifest itself more 
strikingly still. The most remarkable feature 
with regard to the commercial movement to and 
from Alexandria, is found in the fact that the 



404 



THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 



exports double the imports : which under sound 
principles of political economy, under a proper 
administration, ought to render Egypt the most 
prosperous country on the face of the earth. 

There are two short routes, and several longer 
ones, via Malta and Gibraltar to Liverpool ; but 
the two favourite ones are via Brindisi, and by 
French Messageries to Marseilles. The screw 
steamers taking from twelve to fourteen days to 
Liverpool, are said to be very fair, and " werry 
fillin' at the price "■ — as Sam Weller says. Prom 
personal experience, I can speak of the other 
two lines, and can recommend both to those 
who wish to travel fast, and avoid long sea 
passages. 

From Alexandria to Brindisi by P. and 0. 
steamer takes but three days; from Egypt to 
Marseilles by Messageries takes six days — giving 
two days' advantage on the trip to Paris by the 
former line, though a longer land travel by rail. 

Leaving Brindisi, if lucky enough to travel by 
daylight, the traveller sees some curious scenery 
and very odd-looking old places, as he is whirled 
rapidly past the coast line, often in full view 
of the sea. Sitting in your railway carriage, 
there passes before you a series of panoramic 
pictures of crumbling mediaeval old towns, each 
of which has its little history of the days when 
the Moorish cruisers used to descend on these 



PICTURESQUE ITALIAN TOWNS. 405 

coasts, harry the towns, and take away the men 
and women into captivity. Most of these places 
have a tower set npon a high hill, to which the 
people nsed to run for safety when the pirates 
came ; and many have attempts at fortifications. 
They look more picturesque than pleasant as 
places of residence, and have a most decayed 
and mouldy look, even when viewed from a 
distance., They must appear terribly tumble- 
down old places on a near approach, for even 
distance could not lend enchantment to the 
view of them. The people looked half fisher- 
men, half pirate, with a strong dash of the 
beggar; and both places and people bore the 
stamp of poverty and neglect. 

At Ancona and Bologna the traveller may 
sometimes stop for a few hours, and both will 
well repay a longer visit ; the places being very 
quaint and curious, and the art treasures and 
antiquities of the museum at Bologna being 
exceptionally good and numerous. It was here 
the famous Cardinal Mezzofanti, so celebrated 
for his gift of tongues, presided, lived, and died ; 
mastering more languages than any one man (or 
even woman) could possibly ever have use for. 
The old city is so very attractive to strangers 
that, like a mousetrap, once in it is very hard to 
get out of. 

By the Brindisi route you also pass through 

S2 



406 



THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 



Turin, and that wonderful triumph of man over 
mountains, the Mont Cenis Tunnel; emerging 
from which again into bright sunshine and open 
air, after being half choked and stone blind in 
its gloomy passages, is like being born over 
again : adding a new and fresh charm to the 
beauties of nature unappreciated before. 

At Modane, on the frontier line of France and 
Italy, the Custom-house nuisance again awaits 
the voyager — a troublesome and useless farce in 
most instances, and one which the civilization of 
the nineteenth century should mitigate, if it 
cannot (as it ought) entirely do away with it. 
Here you often see the mountain tops and sides, 
a rugged range, covered with snow ; and then, 
after a tedious ride through wild but uninterest- 
ing country, with the worst food at the railway 
stations that ever tried the teeth, the digestion, 
and tjie temper of hungry travellers, you de- 
scend into the smiling plains and vine-covered 
fields of La Belle France — more lovely still by 
contrast with rugged, impoverished-looking Italy; 
whose most uninviting side you see during this 
twenty-four hours' railway travel. 

Before descending, however, you feel that 
your Oriental dream-life is finished, and that 
you are returning to matter-of-fact places and 
people, and less sunny skies again. Before 
reaching the dividing line between Italy and 



"LA BELLE FRANCE." 407 

France, the broken character of the country, 
whose chief product seems to consist of rugged 
stones of various sizes, piled up in some places 
into high peaks whose crests never seem to doff 
their white nightcaps, and keen breezes that cut 
you like a knife, as you stand in a bare un- 
furnished room, where Custom-house officials 
search your luggage for tobacco or brandy, cause 
you to sigh at the memory of the sunny skies 
and soft breezes of old Egypt. As you rush 
more comfortably through France, the souvenir 
of Egypt is more pleasantly revived by the 
softer climate and serener skies ; though the 
monotonous sameness of the scenery wearies both 
eye and mind. The same long flat stretches of 
field and wood, bordered with the prim rows of 
straight poplar ; the same quaint old-fashioned 
towns and villages, looking precisely alike ; the 
same ever-recurring types of population, plainly 
distinguishable each by its peculiar dress, as 
soldier or priest, bourgeois or countryman — offer 
little to excite or amuse the traveller, whirled 
by express through La Belle France, until he 
reaches Paris, the only city in the world where 
every human being feels himself at home. 

As far behind us now in thought and feeling 
(though but a week has elapsed since we left her 
hospitable shores), as if centuries and the whole 
globe divided us, must Egypt now be to the 






408 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

returned pilgrim of our widely different civiliza- 
tion ; but the memory of the land and of the 
people, like the subtle perfume which still scents 
the mummy-cloth after thousands of years, lingers 
•and must ever abide with those, who have visited 
and dwelt in the " Old House of Bondage." 



EGYPT'S FUTUKE. 

Fkom the foregoing pages the reader will have 
been able to form an idea of what the new 
masters of the " Old House of Bondage " have 
done, as well as what they have left undone, for 
the country and people under their charge for 
three-quarters of a century. 

As to the Khedive himself, who certainly has 
not come out " like refined gold " from the 
furnace into which his own short-sightedness 
and improvidence have cast him, his trials have 
brought to light the weakest, as well as the 
worst points of his character, viz., his egotism, 
his want of good faith, his vindictiveness, and 
his necessity of always leaning on some stronger 
will than his own for support. 

He struck away his prop when he sent away 
Nubar Pacha, and since this removal has shown 
pitiable vacillation in his policy — if we may 
dignify by such a name the series of shifting 
expedients by which, before and since the re- 



410 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 

moval and death of the MoufTetich, he has sought 

to regain some of his lost prestige in foreign eyes. 

As he has virtually abdicated the absolute 

power, wielded so fatally for his people, in despite 

of the progress the country has made, we may 

now consider the Egyptian problem, irrespective 

of the personality, that so long overshadowed all 

else, and which has induced me to give the title 

to this book ; for under the present reign it has 

been 

" The Khedive's Egypt," 

and nothing else ! 

Proprietor, in his own name and that of his 
family, of one-fifth of the best land in Egypt, 
the sweat and blood of the fellahs has fertilized 
it ; and even great public works have been made 
and used, solely to increase the wealth and 
pamper the luxury of the Khedive and his 
household ; until even the much-enduring fellah 
now murmurs in revolt, and curses his task- 
master. 

What Egypt needs, in my humble judgment, 
to redeem and regenerate her, may be briefly 
summed up in a few sentences, as follows : — 

1st. Separation from Turkey, assigning the 
tribute to the creditors to whom it has been 
pledged, until that liability is liquidated; the 
privilege of regulating her own internal affairs, 
and pursuing the march of progress, under the 



EGYPT'S FUTURE. 411 

direction of her own most enlightened sons, 
aided by foreign counsel. The Khedive might 
still act as titular head of the State, but as a 
constitutional ruler, shorn of absolute power. 

2nd. The substitution of legality, and of the 
judgment of tribunals, for the arbitrary will of 
one man ; following up the precedent which 
the Khedive has unwillingly established in his 
judicial and financial reforms ; making those 
general and of universal application, which are 
now limited and restricted. So that the reign 
of Law may really be established in fact, as well 
as in name, throughout Egypt. 

3rd. Publicity and responsibility in all matters 
appertaining to the different administrations : as 
well as in the discussions and recommendations 
of the body of Notables from the provinces 
(termed a Parliament), now sitting in secret 
session only, with an increase of their powers 
and responsibilities. 

4th. Eeduction and restriction of royal or 
public expenditures, and of the civil list, within 
reasonable limits : as well as of the building and 
improvement manias : and adjustment of the 
public machinery, in fit proportion to the work 
it has to do.* 

5th. A more just and equitable system of 

* No fitter and better heads for this duty could be found than the 
present commissioners, Mr. Romaine and Baron de Malaret. 



412 



THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT. 



taxation, administered or supervised by honest, 
educated, and responsible officials, and the abo- 
lition of all extraordinary impositions or forced 
loans, under any name or pretext whatsoever. 
Such new system of taxation to be devised and 
apportioned by the Assembly of Notables, who 
understand the country and the whole subject. 

6th. The elevation of the fellaheen, by edu- 
cation and governmental aid, to a standard of 
equality, both in physical condition and political 
rights, with the labouring class of civilized 
countries ; and the abolition of the corvee, and 
all forced labour, except in cases of absolute 
public necessity, in which latter case its objec- 
tionable features also should be amended. 

7th. The gradual, if not immediate, abolition 
of slavery in Egypt ; all the easier because only 
domestic slavery exists there, and is half abo- 
lished -already. With its removal many of the 
social evils existing there would be amelio- 
rated, the condition of woman changed, and her 
gilded slavery also approach its end. 

Of course, in the present condition of the 
country, the initiatory steps in such reforms 
would havo to be taken under foreign tutelage ; 
but there is already a small educated class of 
natives, and so quick-witted a race as the 
Egyptian, can soon be taught sufficient to take 
at least a part in self-government. 



EGYPT'S FUTURE. 413 

These are not the dreams of a visionary, nor 
would the difficulties of putting such reforms 
into execution be half so great, as most people 
might imagine ; owing to the gentle and docile 
character of the race, whom centuries of cruelty 
and oppression have failed to lower or deprave. 

Let us not, then, while giving the Khedive 
his due for such good as he may have accom- 
plished, do injustice to the instruments through 
which he has achieved it. Let us not, to use 
the language of a famous writer on another 
occasion, " while admiring the plumage, forget 
the dying bird." 

The same external pressure which has already 
compelled the Khedive to relax his death-grip 
on the finances of the country, and partially to 
submit himself to the rule of law, as embodied 
in the mixed tribunals, might, in the great 
interests of humanity, compel the concessions 
shadowed forth above, and the liberation of an 
entire people from oppression. Then, but not 
until then, will the " Old House of Bondage " 
no longer deserve the name, which has clung 
to it from times older than tradition : and has 
unhappily continued to be a just appellation, 
whether its taskmasters called themselves 
Pharaohs, or Khedives. 



APPENDIX A. 

CONCESSION AND ALLEGED COST OF SUEZ 

CANAL TO EGYPT. 

No. 1. 

The concession for the Suez Canal Company was obtained 
by M. de Lesseps in 1854, and in December and January, 
1854-55, the preliminary surveys were made on the present 
line, about ninety-eight miles in length. 

In November, 1855, an International Commission visited 
the isthmus, and their report was published in June, 1856. 
But the scheme dragged heavily for two years more ; and it 
was not until 1858 that the Suez Ship Canal Company, under 
the name of La Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de 
Suez, was organized, and not until March, 1859, that what 
were termed "preparatory explorations" were commenced, 
against which the viceroy issued his circular, prohibiting the 
commencement of the work before the consent of the Sub- 
lime Porte, which was a condition precedent, had been 
obtained. 

From that period to 1869, when it was completed and in- 
augurated with great pomp and ceremony, the work went on, 
but with frequent interruptions arising from political and 
financial considerations, all of which, with the potent aid 
of Napoleon III., were finally overcome ; the viceroy who 
granted, and his successor who confirmed the concession, 
having paid from first to last not less than £9,000,000 in 
cash, swollen by interest and other incidentals to £15,000,000 
or £16,000,000. 

The entire length of the canal is little short of 100 miles ; 
300 feet wide on top from one bank to the other, about 150 




416 APPENDIX. 

feet at the bottom, with an average depth of 24 feet. It con- 
nects four natural lakes — Mengaleh, Ballah, Timsah, and the 
Bitter Lakes — which had to be deepened to the requisite 
depth. 

Two enormous jetties, one of 2700, the other of 2000 yards, 
with the distance of 1300 feet between their respective ends, 
constitute the protection of the canal against the choking 
up by the Mediterranean, and for protection of the shipping 
seeking transit through the canal, by the formation of a basin 
of 500 acres in extent, completely sheltered from storms. 

The cuttings at El Guise, south of Kantara, are very 
heavy, extending five miles to Lake Ballah. Twenty-five vast 
steam dredges, and a large force of labourers, were employed 
on this work, and at some places the perpendicular depth 
excavated is upwards of 100 feet. The plateau on which El 
Guise stands is the most elevated point on the canal, and the 
labour of 20,000 fellahs for two years was required to cut 
a channel deep enough to float the steam dredges from the 
Mediterranean, and in filling the shallow basin of Timsah. 

The Fresh-Water Canal from the Damietta branch of the 
Nile, originally extending to Zazazig, 50 miles west of Ismailia, 
has been extended eastwards to a point two or three miles 
west of Ismailia — then a part of the desert — and was of essen- 
tial advantage in the construction of the canal, by furnishing 
the fresh water (which previously tasked several thousands of 
camels and donkeys to convey from Cairo) for the labourers 
engaged on the work. It is 26 feet wide, and about four feet 
deep. The Sweet-Water Canal now connects Ismailia and 
Cairo. 

The northern end of the Bitter Lakes is ten miles from 
Port Said. The lakes themselves are about 24 miles long. 

The cuttings at Toussoum and Serepeum, between Lake 
Timsah and the Bitter Lakes, next to those at El Guise, are 
the deepest and heaviest on the canal. 

In October, 1867, the first steamer navigated as far as Is- 
mailia from Port Said, as the pioneer of the fleet that within 
two years' time was to pass entirely through to Suez. 

The Egyptian Government has gone to great expense in 



APPENDIX. 417 

i 

constructing piers, docks, and basins at Suez, which must be 
added to the cost of its concession above stated. 

Here is the Government estimate of the actual cost to 
Egypt of the Suez Canal, including interest and incidental 
expenses connected with the enterprise : — 

COST TO EGYPT OF SUEZ CAXAL. 

Shares taken in the company by H. H. Said Pasha ... £3,544,120 

Award of Emperor Napoleon to compromise concession of 

forced labour ... ... ... ... ... 2,960,000 

Paid to Canal Company for land and buildings near Cairo, 

called Cheflik-el-Wady ... ... ... ... 400,000 

Paid to Canal Company to cancel concession of land on two 

sides of canal, as per contract, 23rd April, 1869 ... 1,200,000 

Paid to Canal Company for works executed on Sweet-Water 
Canal, and as compensation for relinquishing company's 
claim to that canal ... ... ... ... 400,000 

Cost of works executed by Government in cutting Sweet- 
Water canal ... ... ... ... ... 428,927 

Paid to French contractors for completion of Sweet-Water 

Canal by contract ... ... ... ... 815,833 

Expenses of various missions to Europe and Constantinople 
in connection with canal, and expenses in opening the 
canal ... ... ... ... ... ... 1,011,193 



£10,760,073 
Interest paid on above sums from respective dates to Sep- 
tember, 1873 ... ... ... ... ... 6,663,105 



£17,423,178 
No 2. 

The receipts of the Canal of Suez for the first quarter, for 
four successive years, have been as follows : — 

Francs. 
1874, receipts for first quarter ^,744,000 

1875 „ „ 8,212,000 

1876 „ „ 8,344,000 

1877 „ „ 9,071,000 

The following figures, derived from authentic sources, will 
show the traffic : — 





Number of vessels passing through. 


Tons measurement 


In 1875 


1411 


1,908,970 


Iu 1876 


... ... 1395 ... ... 


1,986,698 




418 APPENDIX. 

Tons. 
Of these, the English vessels amounted to 1,510,193 
French „ „ 135,345 

Holland „ „ 101,031 

Italy „ „ 60,998 

Austria „ „ 27,281 

Russia „ „ 16,627 

Thus, out of about 2,000,000 tonnage per annum, the pro- 
portions are — 

English, a little more than . . 1,500,000 tons. 
All other nations, a little less than 500,000 tons. 

England thus contributing three-fourths of the entire tonnage 



APPENDIX B. 

THE SUEZ CANAL AND THE ENGLISH 
GOVERNMENT. 

The following correspondence with regard to the Suez 
Canal .has been printed : — 

No. 1. 
" The Earl of Derby to Lord Lyons. 

"Foreign Office, May 16. 
" My Lord, — M. de Lesseps called upon me at the Foreign 
Office on the 10th inst., having, as he stated, come expressly 
from Paris to lay before Her Majesty's Government a project 
for regulating the passage of ships of war through the Suez 
Canal. 

" I received him in company with the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer, and he handed to me the draft project of which 
I enclose a copy. 

" After some conversation, I told him that the question of 
the position of the Suez Canal under present circumstances 
was a difficult and delicate one, and that I could not then 



APPENDIX. 419 

say more than that the project which he had been good 
enough to submit to me should have full consideration. 

" Her Majesty's Government have since carefully considered 
the project, and have come to the conclusion that the scheme 
proposed in it for the neutralization of the Canal by an 
International Convention is open to so many objections of a 
political and practical character that they could not under- 
take to recommend it for the acceptance of the Porte and the 
Powers. 

" Her Majesty's Government are, at the same time, deeply 
sensible of the importance to Great Britain and other neutral 
Powers of preventing the Canal being injured or blocked up 
by either of the belligerents in the present war, and your 
Excellency is at liberty to inform M. de Lesseps that Her 
Majesty's Government has intimated to the Russian Ambas- 
sador that an attempt to blockade or otherwise to interfere 
with the Canal or its approaches would be regarded by Her 
Majesty's Government as a menace to India, and as a grave 
injury to the commerce of the world. I added that on both 
those grounds any such step — which Her Majesty's Govern- 
ment hope and fully believe there is no intention on the part 
of either belligerent to take — would be incompatible with the 
maintenance by Her Majesty's Government of an attitude of 
passive neutrality. 

" Her Majesty's Government will cause the Porte and the 
Khedive to be made acquainted with the intimation thus 
conveyed to the Russian Government, and Her Majesty's 
Ambassador at Constantinople and Agent in Egypt will be 
instructed to state that Her Majesty's Government will expect 
that the Porte and the Khedive will on their side abstain 
from impeding the navigation of the Canal, or adopting any 
measures likely to injure the Canal or its approaches, and 
that Her Majesty's Government are firmly determined not to 
permit the Canal to be made the scene of any combat or other 
warlike operations. 

"In stating this to M. de Lesseps, your Excellency will 
explain that Her Majesty's Government have thus taken the 
initiative in regard to the protection of the Canal on account 



420 



ArPENDIX 



of the pressing necessity, as regards British, interests, of 
maintaining the security of the Canal, and they do not doubt 
that if the Canal were to be seriously menaced, the French 
and other Governments would adopt a similar course. 

" I am, etc., 

(Signed) " Dekby. 



Inclosure 1 in No. 1 
" Memorandum by M. de Lesseps. 

" The very clear declaration made by the English Govern- 
ment to the two Houses of Parliament of its resolution to 
maintain the freedom of the passage of the Suez Canal for 
its men-of-war has led me to believe that there might now 
be an opportunity of concluding an agreement With other 
Governments on this subject. 

" As president of the financial company with which England 
is connected, I submit to Lord Derby a project simply ex- 
pressing my personal views, which I have reason to believe 
the Due Decazes would be disposed to adhere to after a 
private conversation which I had with him yesterday morning. 

" Should the British Minister not think it well to initiate 
negotiations with the other Cabinets, I would make, at Paris, 
to the representatives of the several Powers interested, the 
overtures which I have made to Lord Derby and the Due 
Decazes. 

(Signed) "Feed, de Lesseps. 

"London, May 10, 1877." 



Inclosure 2 in ~No. 1. 

"International Agreement as to passage of Ships of War 

through the Suez Canal." 

" Since the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 the complete 

liberty of passage through the Maritime Canal and the ports 

connected with it has been respected for State vessels as well 



APPENDIX. 421 

as for merchant ships, even on the part of belligerent Powers 
at the time of the Franco- German War. 

" The Governments of now agree to maintain the 

same liberty to all national or commercial vessels, whatever 
may be their flag and withont any exception, it being under- 
stood that national ships will be subject to the measures which 
the territorial authority may take to prevent ships in transit 
from disembarking on Egyptian territory any troops or muni- 
tions of war." 



No. 2. 
" The Earl of Derby to Mr. Layard* 

" Foreign Office, May 15. 

" Sir, — 1 transmit to your Excellency herewith a copy of a 
despatch which I have addressed to Her Majesty's Ambassa- 
dor at Paris, respecting a project, of which a copy is also 
inclosed, communicated to me by M. de Lesseps, for the 
neutralization of Suez Canal. 

" Tour Excellency will see that Her Majesty's Government 
have declined to adopt that project, but have informed M. de 
Lesseps of the intimation made by Her Majesty's Government 
to the Russian Ambassador that an attempt to blockade or 
otherwise to interfere with the Canal or its approaches would 
be regarded by Her Government as a menace to India, and 
as a grave injury to the commerce of the world, and that on 
both these grounds any such step — which Her Majesty's 
Government hope and fully believe there is ho intention on 
the part of either belligerent to take — would be incompatible 
with the maintenance by Her Majesty's Government of an 
attitude of passive neutrality. 

" I have to request your Excellency to acquaint the Porte 
with the intimation thus conveyed to the Russian Govern- 
ment, and to state that Her Majesty's Government will expect 
that the Porte and the Khedive will on their side abstain 

* A similar despatch was addressed to Mr. Vivian. 
T 




422 



APPENDIX. 



from impeding the navigation of the Canal, or adopting any 
measures likely to injure the Canal or its approaches, and 
that Her Majesty's Government are firmly determined not to 
permit the Canal to be made the scene of any combat or other 
warlike operations. 

"I have addressed a similar despatch to Her Majesty's 
Agent and Consul- General in Egypt. 

" I am, etc., 

(Signed) "Derby." 



APPENDIX C. 

THE MIXED TRIBUNALS. 
No. 1. 

ROCKS AHEAD — SALARIES AND CONFLICTS OF JURISDICTION. 

Lest I may be suspected or accused of captiousness or 
injustice in the remarks which I have felt bound to make 
in several places on two points of great public interest, 
viz., the extravagance of salaries paid some of the Euro- 
pean employes, and the difficulties of the new tribunals in 
steering^ between Scylla (the foreign element) on the one 
side, and Charybdis (in the person of the Khedive) on the 
other, I cite the testimony of two witnesses upon the spot : 
one of whom is understood to be a gentleman holding a high 
official position on the new tribunals, and the other the 
English correspondent of a leading London journal. Such 
testimony must be regarded as unimpeachable, and it fully 
confirms my own on both poinis. From the letter of the 
Times' correspondent, under date of January 1st, 1877, I 
quote but a small portion of his comments on this topic. 
Speaking of the Khedive's economies, he says : — 

" There is a further impediment, and a serious one, to the 
introduction of real economy in the matter of the salaries of 
the Egyptian Civil Service. Many of the higher posts are 



APPENDIX. 423 

now filled by Europeans. In order to invite men of capacity 
and position in their own country, large sums have been 
offered as an inducement to come to Egypt, and contracts 
have been made, which insure the payment of such sums for 
a certain number of years. The new Controllers-General of 
Taxation, for instance, are paid as highly as the President of 
the United States or a Baron of the Exchequer. Even their 
deputies are to receive £2500 a year, while £3000 a year 
is not an uncommon salary to Europeans in other branches 
of the service. There is yet another obstacle to economy. 
International jealousy is strong in Egypt, and consequently 
two or three men imist he named to tvhat is only the work of one, 
in order that each nationality should have its proper influence 
in the country. Thus an Englishman and a Frenchman must 
attend to the taxation ; two Englishmen and on& Frenchman 
control the railways ; an Englishman, a Frenchman, an Italian, 
and an Austrian attend to the public debt ; and as many as 
twelve nationalities are represented on the judicial bench, 
which, however, is not paid on the scale of more recent 
appointments. Of course all this European talent is very 
highly paid, and the rate of these salaries to foreigners makes 
economy in the payment of the native functionaries a most 
invidious task." 

The special correspondent of the Daily Neivs, writing from 
Alexandria, February 19th, 1877, thus shows the "rocks 
ahead " of the judicial tribunals : — 

"The position of the new tribunals has from the outset 
been one requiring great tact and delicacy, in order to avoid 
the extremes of manifesting too little independence, and so 
losing the confidence of the treaty Powers, on the one hand, 
and displaying too much, and thus bringing themselves into 
collision with the Khedive, on the other. How far these 
dangers have been avoided hitherto may be a matter of 
opinion, but anyhow the courts have passed through the 
first year of their existence, which is something to boast 
of. At the present moment, however, there are complica- 
tions impending which can hardly fail to land them either 
on one horn or the other of a dilemma from which apparently 
there is no escape. The immediate source of trouble is a 
M. Brocard, formerly contractor for the Fresh- Water Canal 
at Isma'ilia, who, within the past week, succeeded in inducing 
the Cairo tribunal to award him £50,000 from the Govern- 
ment. Of course he failed to obtain payment, and in default 



424 



APPENDIX. 




J 




he proceeded to levy execution upon the Mallieh, or Treasury, 
where, as might from past experience have been anticipated, 
the officer of the court was resisted, and had to withdraw. 
. . . It is morally certain that the Government, having regard 
to the hundreds of similar cases pending, can never allow 
the sentence to be enforced, and the only dignified course then 
open to the judges will be to perform the process known as the 
" happy despatch,'''' and so close their own careers and that 
of the Reforme Judiciare at the same time. Even supposing 
them to be willing to remain in office, and continue to act the 
•part of mere lay figures in a judicial farce, the end would 
probably be none the less near or certain, for it must be re- 
membered that M. Brocard, the plaintiff in question, is a 
French subject, and that France is one of the two Powers 
which refused to bind themselves to the Reforme Judiciare for 
any definite time. She can, therefore, and doubtless will, at 
any period, withdraw from the convention upon finding that 
the interests of her citizens are not protected under it ; and 
were France to abandon the new system, Russia, which is 
similarly situated with regard to her obligations, would probably 
follow. With the secession of these two important Powers, 
the integrity of the Reforme Judicaire would be for ever 
destroyed — it would become practically unworkable, and its 
entire collapse must inevitably follow." 

No. 2. 

INTEKNATIONAL EIVALRIES. 

From a letter addressed to the Times from Alexandria, under 
date of May 27th of the present year, and supposed to emanate 
from a source worthy of credence, the following frank expo- 
sition of the internal dissensions and jealousies of the different 
constituent members of the new International Tribunal is 
taken. It gives a lively picture of the difficulties attendant 
on the creation and preservation of harmony or the merging 
of private piques and rivalries into the common interest, as 
well as the existing anomalies in the constitution of the 
tribunals. 

"Mention has often been made of the international rivalry 
which goes on in Egypt. The French always strive to have 
more influence than the English with the Government, and 
the Italians and the Greeks enter into the same competition, 
though with less success ; a struggle for predominance which 



APPENDIX. 425 

nas produced needless expense of administration, as the ap- 
pointment of an Englishman or Frenchman has more than 
once led to the successful application from another nationality 
to have a similar nominee. In the new judicial body this 
international rivalry was appeased by a promise from Egypt 
that each of the seven Great Powers should have a nominee 
in the Court of Appeal, a second in the Court of First 
Instance, and a third in the Parquet, or Department of Jus- 
tice^ France, however, just recently has managed to obtain 
a small triumph by an ingenious evasion of this principle of 
equality of representation. The members of the Parquet were 
found of little use on account of the absence of criminal 
jurisdiction. Their only practical utility was as public prose- 
cutors, and for that duty there is at present no demand. It 
was, therefore, proposed to the Powers to transfer these 
gentlemen to the Bench, where there is a want of power to 
meet the heavy and increasing demands for credit justice. 
All the Powers assented save France, who preferred, she said, 
to retain her nominee in the Parquet. Only six new judges 
were, therefore, secured. Then the French member of the 
Parquet complained of the inequality of his position vis a vis 
his recent colleagues. To satisfy him the post of Avocat- 
General was created, and he now fills that office with an 
increase of pay. But this by no means contented the French 
party. They next px'otested against the infringement of the 
principle of equality of representation in the International 
Tribanal produced by the fact that all the Great Powers save 
France (and America, who never sent a member to the Par- 
quet) had nominated two Judges of First Instance. The 
argument was found irresistible by Egypt, and a second 
French Judge of First Instance has been appointed. M. 
Bellet, Avocat- General of the Court of Appeal of Toulouse, 
a man of high reputation and long experience, arrived here 
last week, and takes his seat at once on the Alexandria Bench, 
toliere there is an appalling list of arrears. The system and 
languages are at present purely continental, and this increase 
of the French element introduces the best working power. 
But there is a point which should not be lost sight of by 



426 



APPENDIX. 



England. At the end of the first five years the whole system 
of the International Tribunals is to be subjected to revision, 
and the representatives of the large British interests in Egypt 
hope that certain changes may be made in favour of the 
English method of dealing with questions of fact. The Anglo- 
Egyptians complain with reason that English law and English 
procedure should not have been wholly set aside in presence of the 
fact that two-thirds of the whole commerce of the country are 
English. But if a reform of the codes were seriously con- 
templated, the English and American element in the courts 
wonld be of increased utility, and a predominant French party 
would only lead to difficulty." 



APPENDIX D. 

POPULATION" OF THE FOREIGN COLONY. 

No. 1. 

It is difficult, if not impossible, to give an accurate state- 
ment as to the exact number and nationality of the foreign 
colony in Egypt. The consular registers are necessarily 
imperfect, in consequence not only of the neglect of persons 
to register their names and those of their families, but, in 
addition to the large floating class, agents of foreign houses 
scattered throughout the villages render the task more per- 
plexing. 

I subjoin a statement taken from the consular registers, 
showing only approximately the numbers and nationality of 
strangers resident in Egypt, which the Khedive himself esti- 
mates at about 100,000. 

Greeks (not rayahs, or subjects of the Porte) ... 34,000 

Italians ... ... ... .„ 15,000 

Frenchmen and French subjects ... ... 17,000 

Englishmen and Maltese ... ... ... 6,000 

Austrians and Hungarians ... .«■> „, 6,500 

Germans ... ... .„ ... 1,100 

All other nationalities 1,390 



APPENDIX. 



427 



Of Americana there are very few; a dozen missionaries, 
about 20 army officers, three judges of the mixed tribunals, 
and a small number of citizens. The number of American 
visitors annually is very great : larger than that of any other 
nationality except England. 



No. 2. 

Translated from the Statistique de VEgypte, published by 
order of Government at Cairo, 1873 : — 

No. 10.— FOREIGN SUBJECTS OF VARIOUS NATIONALITIES, 
RESIDING IN EGYPT. 



























wT .2 




Residences. 


3 

f-i 




,d 

o 




4, 

"So 


<s 
to 

a 

w 


a 

a 


5 


V 

'3 




u 

3 


c 
"to 


o g S 


Total. 




© 


l-H 


Pk 


w 


o 


© 


Pi 


» 


& 




K 


"g o 3 










































< 


















ALEXANDRIA 


21,000 


7,539 


10,000 


4,500 3,000 


600 


1 

100 150 


127220 


40 


40 


47,316 


Cairo (suburbs 














inclusive) 


7,000 


3,367 


5,000 1,000 1,800 


450 


400] 103 




OTHER LOCALITIES 
















19,120 


(Principally Isth- 


















mus of Suez 














' 




and Delta) 
Total . . . 


6,000 


3,000 


2,000 


500 1,500 


50 


210 


13.260 


34,000 jl3,906 


17,000 15,000 0,300 

I 1 


1,100 






] 


,390 






79,696 



Note. — These figures have been taken by the respective consulates in 
1870-72 from the registrations of each nationality, which at Alexan- 
dria represent about half the real number, or number supposed to be 
correct. For the Italian colony alone, the results of a recent and rather 
complete census, taken in 1871-72, has been used, but from this, no doubt, 
a certain number of residents have been omitted. The general total, 
79,696, includes about 800 Swiss under the protection of various foreign 
Powers; it does not apply to the floating or travelling population, but 
only to residents. 



428 APPENDIX. 

APPENDIX B. 

FIRMAN CHANGING SUCCESSION. 

The firman of the Sultan changing the Egyptian succes- 
sion was issued on 13 Rabi-ul Akhir 1290 of the Hegira — 
equivalent to 9th June, 1873. In this firman it is declared 
that " The Khedivate of Egypt passes to the eldest son of the 
person who shall find himself clothed with the dignity of 
the Khedive, or from him to his eldest son, and so on ; that 
is to say, that the succession is established exclusively by 
order of primogeniture, as we are persuaded will be conform- 
able to the interests and good administration of the Khedivate 
and the welfare of its people. In case the Khedive shall die 
without male issue, the Khedivate will pass to his younger 
brother, or, if need be, to the elder son of his younger brother." 
Provision is made in detail for a regency in case of the 
minority of the heir presumptive, eighteen years being con- 
sidered full age. This firman further recognizes the unlimited 
authority of the Khedive to make internal laws and regula- 
tions for the government of Egypt, and his right to bestow 
military grades as high as colonel, and civil grades as high 
as bey. Higher grades must be issued from Constantinople 
at his request. This firman, enlarging previous powers granted 
to Egyptian viceroys, authorizes the Khedive contract to 
loans without perjnission asked of the Sultan ; to enter into 
commercial or other treaties with foreign Powers, provided 
such arrangements are not inconsistent with the political 
treaties of the Sublime Porte ; and also empowers him to 
increase his army and navy, as he sees fit, with the exception 
of ironclads, which are forbidden. 

The annual tribute to Constantinople is fixed at 150,000 
purses in gold, equivalent to about £680,000, concerning 
which the Sublime Porte thus feelingly and forcibly speaks : 
" Thou shalt also pay the greatest attention to remit each year 
without delay, and in its entirety, to my Imperial Treasury 
the 150,000 purses of tribute established, as fixed by the 
firman, of 1866 " — the firman elevating the viceroy to the 
dignity of Khedive. 



APPENDIX. 429 

APPENDIX F. 

EGYPTIAN EXPLORATION OP CENTRAL AFRICA. 

I am indebted to General Stone, Chief of Staff, for the 
following report, submitted by him to the Khedive last 
autnmn, giving the results of staff and other Egyptian ex- 
plorations in Central Africa : — 

War Office, Bureau of the General Staff, 
{Cabinet of the Chief.) Cairo, 16th October, 1876. 

Summary of geographical and scientific results accomplished 
by expeditions made by the Government of the Khedive 
of Egypt during the three years 1874-5-6 : — 

1. Accurate reconnaissance of the White Nile, from Gondo- 
koro to Lake Albert. — Gordon, assisted by Watson, Chippen- 
dall, and Gessi. 

2. Reconnaissance of the White Nile between Khartoum 
and Gondokoro, with greater exactitude than had ever before 
been accomplished, with the determination of five positions 
by means of astronomical observations. — Watson and Chip- 
pendall, under the orders of Colonel Gordon. 

3. Observations of the transit of Venus, Dec, 1874. By 
Watson and Chippendall, under the orders of Colonel Gordon ; 
at Rageef, near Gondokoro. 

4. Reconnaissance of Lake Albert, 1878. By Q-essi under 
the orders of General Gordon. 

5. Establishment of steam navigation upon Lake Albert. 
By General Gordon. 

6. Verification of the course of the Nile between Lake 
Victoria and M'rooli, and the discovery of Lake Ibrahim. By 
Lieut.-Colonel Long, under the orders of Colonel Gordon. 

7. Verification of the course of the Nile between the falls 
of Kamma and Lake Albert, By Linant, Gessi, and Piaggia 
under the orders of General Gordon. 

8. Discovery of the branch flowing from the Nile near 

Lake Albert towards the north-west, By Geasi, under tho 

orders of General Gordon, m „ 

1 * 



430 



APPENDIX. 



9. Discovery of the branch flowing from Lake Ibrahim in 
a northerly direction. By Piaggia, under the orders of General 
Gordon. 

10. The accurate reconnaissance of the Nile between 
Foweira and M'rooli. By General Gordon. 

11. Reconnaissance of the country between the "White Nile, 
near Gondokoro, and the Makiaka-Niam-Niam country. By 
Colonel Long, assisted by Maino, under the orders of General 
Gordon. 

12. Reconnaissance and completion of the map of the route 
between Debbe and Matoul, and between Debbe and Obeiyail. 
By Colonel Colston, assisted by five officers of the Egyptian 
staff. 

Report upon the northern portion of the province of Kor- 
dofan. — Colonel Colston. 

13. General reconnaissance of the province of Kordofan, 
and completion of the map to the 12th degree of north lati- 
tude. By Major Prout, assisted by five officers of the Egyptian 
staff. Lines of reconnaissance traversed, about 6000 kilo- 
metres ; seventeen positions determined astronomically. 

General report upon the said province. By Major Prout. 

14. Botanical reconnaissance (with large collections of 
plants) of the province of Kordofan. By Doctor Pfund, under 
the orders of Colonel Colston and Major Prout. 

15. Botanical reconnaissance (with collections of plants) 
of the central portion of the province of Darfour. By Doctor 
Pfund, under the orders of Colonel Purdy. 

16. Reconnaissance of the route between Dongola upon the 
Nile and El Facher, the capital of Darfour. By Colonel Purdy 
assisted by Lieut.-Colonel Mason and five other officers of the 
Egyptian staff. 

1 7. General reconnaissance of the entire country of Darfour, 
and a portion of the Dar Fertit, as far as Hofrat el Nahass 
and Shekka to the south, as far as Gebel Medob to the north, 
and as far as the frontier of Wadai to the west, with the 
completion of the map and general report upon the country 
By Colonel Purdy, assisted by Lieut.-Colonel Mason, Major 
Prout, and nine other officers of the Egyptian staff. Distance 



APPENDIX. 431 

traversed, over 6500 kilometres ; twenty-two positions deter- 
mined astronomically. 

18. Geological and mineralogical reconnaissance of the 
country between Rudesieh and Kinneh upon the Nile, and the 
Red Sea near Cosire, with a geological map and profile, and 
report. By Mr. Mitchell, assisted by an officer of the staff 
and Emiliano, with large collections of specimens. 

19. Topographical and geological reconnaissance of the 
country to the south-west of Zeylah and near Tajurra. By Mr. 
Mitchell, assisted by an officer of the staff and Emiliano. 
Preparation of the map ; collection of geological specimens. 

20. Reconnaissance and completion of the map between 
Zeylah and Hanar; map of the city of Hanar and of the 
country neighbouring. By the Major of Staff Mocktar, assisted 
by Adjutant- Major of the Staff Fouzy, attached to the expe- 
dition of Ranif Pacha. 

21. Topographical reconnaissance of the country between 
the coast of the Red Sea, near Massowah, and the plateau 
of Abyssinia, with the completion of the map. By Colonels 
Lockett and Pield; Lieut.-Colonels Derrick and Balig; Majors 
Duliu, Dennison, and D'iuholy ; Captain Irgens, and several 
other officers of the Egyptian staff. 

22. Geological reconnaissance of the country between Mas- 
sowah and the Abyssinian plateau, with collections of speci- 
mens. By Mr. Mitchell, assisted by Emiliano. 

23. Reconnaissance and survey of the country between 
Berberah and Gebel Dobar, with completion of the map. By 
Capitaine Abd-el-Rasach Nasmy, and other officers of the 
Egyptian staff. 

24. Reconnaissance and sounding, with completion of maps 
of the ports of Kismaya and Dumford upon the coast of the 
Indian Ocean. By Colonel Ward, assisted by Capitaine 
Sidky, and other staff officers. 

25. Reconnaissance of the route and completion of the map 
between Siout (by the desert) and Ain el Aghieh. By Major 
D'iuholy, assisted by an officer of the Egyptian staff. 

26. Reconnaissance between Tajurra and Aoussa. By the 



432 



APPENDIX. 



Staff -Lieutenant Mohammed Igyat, under the orders of Mun- 
zinger Pacha. 

27. Barometrical and thermometrical register taken by 
officers in the provinces of the Equator, of Kordofan, of Dar- 
four, and in all the expeditions. 

Respectfully submitted, 

Stone, 

General of Division, Chief of the General Staff. 



APPENDIX G. 






MR. GOSCHEN'S TABULAR STATEMENT. 

DIRECT TAXES. 

On lands ... ... ... ... ... £4,302,400 

On date trees ... ... ... ... 189,300 

Licences on professions, etc. (contributions d'arts 

et metiers) ... ... ... ... 422,000 



INDIRECT TAXES. 



4,913,700 



Customs ... ... ... ... ... 639,000 

Tobacco monopoly ... ... ... ... 263,900 

REVENUES OF GOVERNMENT. 

From salt-works (salines) ... ... ... 306,000 

Farming of fisheries (fermage du poisson frais, et 

Matarieh — poisson sale) ... ... ... 131,000 

Sundry taxes and revenues in the provinces 

(Moudiriehs) ... ... ... ... 504,900 

Revenues of the province of Soudan ... ... 143,500 

Sundries ... ... ... ... ... 34,000 



902,900 



437,800 



682,400 



£6,936,800 



APPENDIX. 433 

TOTAL GENERAL TAXATION. 
Local revenues, taxes, and dues; municipalities, 

Cairo and Alexandria ... ... ... £517,800 

Gonvernorats (governorships of small towns) and 

police receipts ... ... ... 202,400 

Canal, bridge, port, and other dues and tolls ... 165,600 



885,803 
Railways ... ... ... ... ... 990,200 



Amount received in anticipation of future land- 
tax (Moukabala) ... ... ... 1,613,000 

Repayments of advances made by Government 

and arrears ... ... ... ... 377,700 



1,876,000 



- 1,991,300 
£10,S04,100 



APPENDIX H. 
exports And prices op Egyptian crops. 

Exports of cotton, grain, cotton-seed, and sugar for the 
years 1866, 1870, 1872, 1873, 1875 and 1876, from Custom- 
house returns : — 

The exports of cotton were : — 

Cantars. 
In 1866 ... ... ... ... 1,785,000 

„ 1870 ... ... ... ... 1,845,452 

„ 1872 ... ... ... ... 2,168,181 

„ 1873 ... ... ... ... 2,187,035 

COTTON SHIPMENTS TO DIFFERENT PORTS. 

Cantara. 

Total shipments to all ports in 1874-75 ... 345,794 

„ w Liverpool, same year ... 292,243 

„ „ France and Spain, do. ... 38,014 

„ „ Austria, Italy, and Russia, do. 35,447 



434 



APPENDIX. 



The exports of grain were : — 



In 1866 
„ 1870 
„ 1872 
„ 1873 



Ardeba. 

295,942 
1,414,300 
1,580,256 
1,525,314 



The exports of cotton-seed were : — 



In 1866 
„ 1870 
„ 1872 
„ 1873 



Ardebs. 

750,877 
1,264,507 
1,334,223 
1,282,469 



EGYPTIAN COTTON-SEED. 

Ardebs. 
Total exportable crop (1875) estimated to be 1,450,000 
Actual export ... ... ... 1,361,000 

About half the crop went to Hull. About 90,000 ardebs estimated to 
Lave been retained for sowing. 



The exports of sugar were : — 



In 1866 
», 1870 
„ 1872 
„ 1873 



Cantars. 

450 

356,468 

456,351 

738,002 



CROPS FOR 1876. 



Ardebs. 



Wheat, Sa'idi (100 ardebs equal to 63 imperial quarters) 817,219 



Ditto, Behira 
Barley 100 

Beans, Saidi 
Ditto, Behira 100 
Indian corn 100 
Cotton-seed 1000 



62i 

65 

64 
100 tons 



Cake of cotton-seed (1 cantar equal to 93 lbs.) 
Sugar „ „ 



150,664 

125,697 

934,737 

83,183 

37,793 

1,902,272 

Cantars. 
108,374-49 
743,440-30 



APPENDIX. 



435 



Cotton, from 1st of January to 31st of August ... 

„ 1st of September to 31st of December ... 



AVERAGE PRICES DURING 1876. 



Cantars. 
1,875,486-81 
1,755,862-68 

♦3,631,349-49 



Wheat 85 piastres Tar 

Beans 80 „ 

Barley 60 „ 

Maize 60 „ 

Cotton-seed 75 „ 

Cotton-seed cake 20 „ 

Sugar 100 



f, or 17s. the ardeb. 
16s. 

12s. „ 
12s. „ 
15s. „ 
£4 the ton. 
£25 „ 



Cotton 12 dollars the cantar, or 6d. per lb. 

* This large export of cotton arises from the large quantity held over 
from 1875 for a cotton market, and from the hurried shipments in the 
autumn of 1876 to provide money. The crop of 1875-76 was 3,000,000 
cantars, the largest ever known. The crop of 1876-7 was a smaller one 
--2,500,000 cantars. 



VALUABLE AND IOTEKESTING WORKS 

FOR 

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LIBRARIES 

Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. 



%37~ For a full List of Books suitable for Libraries, see Harpee & Brothers' 
Trade-List and Catalogue, which may be had gratuitously on a]jplication 
to the Publishers personally, or by letter enclosing Nine Cents in Postage 
Stamps. 

ZW Harpee & Brothers will send their publications by mail, postage prepaid [ex- 
cepting certain books whose xueight would exclude them from the mail], on 
receipt of the price. Haepee & Broth ers' School and College Text-Books 
are marked in this list tvith an asterisk (*). 



FIRST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC. A Review of American 
Progress. 8vo, Cloth, $5 00.; Sheep, $5 50 ; Half Morocco, $7 25. 

Contents. 

Introduction: I. Colonial Progress. By Eugene Lawrence. — II. Mechanical 
Progress. By Edward H. Knight.— III. Progress in Manufacture. By the 
Hon. David A. Wells.— IV. Agricultural Progress. By Professor William 
H. Brewer. — V. The Development of our Mineral Resources. By Professor 
T. Sterey Hunt. — VI. Commercial Development. By Edward Atkinson. 
— VII. Growth and Distribution of Population. By the Hon. Francis A. 
Walker. — VIII. Monetary Development. By Professor William G. Sum- 
nee. — IX. The Experiment of the Union, with its Preparations. By T. D. 
Woolsev, D.D., LL.D. — X. Educational Progress. By Eugene Lawrence. 
—XI. Scientific Progress: 1. The Exact Sciences. By F. A. P. Barnaed, 
D.D., LL.D. 2. Natural Science. By Professor Theodore Gill.— XII. A 
Century of American Literature. By Edwin P. Whipple.— XIII. Progress 
of the Fine Arts. By S. S. Conant. — XIV. Medical and Sanitary Progress. 
By Austin Flint, M.D. — XV. American Jurisprudence. By Benjamin 
Vaughan Abbott. — XVI. Humanitarian Progress. By Charles L. Brace. 
—XVII. Religious Development. By the Rev. John F. Hurst, D.D. 

MOTLEY'S DUTCH REPUBLIC. The Rise of the Dutch Republic. 
A History. By John Lothrop Motlet, LL.D., D.C.L. With a 
Portrait of William of Orange. 3 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $10 50; Sheep, 
$12 00; Half Calf, $17 25. 

MOTLEY'S UNITED NETHERLANDS. History of the United Neth- 
erlands : from the Deatli of William the Silent to the Twelve Years' 
Truce — 1609. With a full View of the English-Dutch Struggle against 
Spain, and of the Origin and Destruction of the Spanish Armada. By 
John Lothrop Motley, LL.D., D.C.L. Portraits. 4 vols., 8vo, 
Cloth, $14 00; Sheep, $16 00; Half Calf, $23 00. 

MOTLEY'S LIFE AND DEATH OF JOHN OF BARNEVELD. The 
Life and Deatli of John of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland : with a 
View of the Primary Causes and Movements of "The Thirty-years' 
War." Bv John Lothrop Motley, LL.D., D.C.L. Illustrated. In 
2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $7 00; Sheep, $8 00; Half Calf, $11 50. 



2 Valuable and Interesting Works for Public and Private Libraries. 



*HAYDN'S DICTIONARY OF DATES, relating to all Ages and Na- 
tions. For Universal Reference. Edited by Benjamin Vincent, As- 
sistant Secretary and Keeper of the Library of the Royal Institution of 
Great Britain ; and Revised for the Use of American Readers. 8vo, 
Cloth, $3 50 ; Sheep, $3 94. 

HILDRETH'S UNITED STATES. History of the United States. 
First Series : From the Discovery of the Continent to the Organiza- 
tion of the Government under the Federal Constitution. Second Se- 
ries : From the Adoption of the Federal Constitution to the End of 
the Sixteenth Congress. By Richard Hildreth. 6 vols., 8 vo, Cloth, 
$18 00; Sheep, $21 00; Half Calf, $31 50. 

HUME'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. The History of England, from 
the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Abdication of James II., 1688. By 
David Hume. 6 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $4 80 ; Sheep, $7 20 ; Half Calf, 
$15 30. 

HUDSON'S HISTORY OF JOURNALISM. Journalism in the United 
States, from 1 690 to 1872. By Frederic Hudson. 8vo, Cloth, $5 00 ; 
Half Calf, $7 25. 

JEFFERSON'S DOMESTIC LIFE. The Domestic Life of Thomas 
Jefferson : compiled from Family Letters and Reminiscences, by his 
Great-granddaughter, Sarah N. Randolph. Illustrated. Crown 8vo, 
Cloth, $2 50. 

JOHNSON'S COMPLETE WORKS. The Works of Samuel Johnson, 
LL.D. With an Essay on his Life and Genius, by Arthur Murphy, 
Esq. 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $4 00 ; Sheep, $5 00 ; Half Calf, $8 50. 

KINGLAKE'S CRIMEAN WAR. The Invasion of the Crimea : its 
Origin, and an Account of its Progress down to the Death of Lord Rag- 
lan. By Alexander William Kinglake. With Maps and Plans. 
Three Volumes now ready. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00 per vol. ; Half Calf, 
$3 75 p*er vol. 

LAMB'S COMPLETE WORKS. The Works of Charles Lamb. Com- 
prising his Letters, Poems, Essays of Elia, Essays upon Shakspeare, 
Hogarth, &c.,and a Sketch of his Life, with the Final Memorials, by 
T. Noon Talfourd. With Portrait. 2 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $3 00; 
Half Calf, $6 50. 

LAWRENCE'S HISTORICAL STUDIES. Historical Studies. By 
Eugene Lawrence. Containing the following Essays : The Bishops 
of Rome. — Leo and Luther. — Loyola and the Jesuits. — Ecumenical 
Councils. — The Vaudois.< — The Huguenots. — The Church of Jerusalem. 
— Dominic and the Inquisition. — The Conquest of Ireland. — The Greek 
Church. 8vo, Cloth, uncut edges and gilt tops, $3 00. 

MYERS'S REMAINS OF LOST EMPIRES. Remains of Lost Em- 
pires : Sketches of the Ruins of Palmyra, Nineveh, Babylon, and Per- 
sepolis, with some Notes on India and the Cashmerian Himalayas. By 
P. V. N. Mters. Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $3 50. 



Valuable and Interesting Works for Public and Private Libraries. 3 

LOSSING'S FIELD-BOOK OF THE KEVOLUTION. Pictorial 
Field-Book of the Revolution : or, Illustrations by Fen and Pencil of 
the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the War for 
Independence. By Benson J. Lossing. 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $14 0(V 
Sheep or Roan, $15 00 ; Half Calf, $18 00. 

LOSSING'S FIELD-BOOK OF THE WAR OF 1812. Pictorial 
Field-Book of the War of 1812 : or, Illustrations by Pen and Pencil of 
the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the last War 
for American Independence. By Benson J. Lossing. With several 
hundred Engravings on Wood by Lossing and Barritt, chiefly from 
Original Sketches by the Author. 1088 pages, 8vo, Cloth, $7 00 ; 
Sheep or Roan, $8 50; Half Calf, $10 00. 

MACAULAY'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. The History of England 
from the Accession of James II. By Thomas Babington Macatjlay. 
5 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $10 00; Sheep, $12 50; Half Calf, $21 25; 12mo, 
Cloth, $4 00 ; Sheep, $6 00 ; Half Calf, $12 75. 

MACAULAY'S LIFE AND LETTERS. The Life and Letters of Lord 
Macaulay. By his Nephew, G. Otto Tkeveltan, M.P. With Por- 
trait on Steel. Complete in 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, uncut edges and gilt 
tops, $5 00 ; Sheep, $6 00 ; Half Calf, $9 50. Popular Edition, 2 
vols, in one, 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. 

FORSTER'S LIFE OF DEAN SWIFT. The Early Life of Jonathan 
Swift (1667-1711). By John Forster. With Portrait. 8vo, Cloth, 
$2 50. 

*GREEN'S SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE. A 
Short History of the English People. By J. R. Green, M.A., Exam- 
iner in the School of Modern History, Oxford. With Tables and Col- 
ored Maps. Svo, Cloth, $1 52. 

HALLAM'S MIDDLE AGES. View of the State of Europe during 
the Middle Ages. By Henry Hallam. 8vo, Cloth, $2 00 ; Sheep, 
$2 50; Half Calf, $4 25. 

HALLAM'S CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. The 
Constitutional History of England, from the Accession of Henry VII. 
to the Death of George II. By Henry Hallam. 8vo, Cloth, $2 00 ; 
Sheep, $2 50 ; Half Calf, $4 25. 

HALLAM'S LITERATURE. Introduction to the Literature of Europe 
during the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries. By Hen- 
ry Hallam. 2 vols., Svo, Cloth, $4 00; Sheep, $5 00; Half Calf, 
$8 50. 

SCHWEINFURTH'S HEART OF AFRICA. The Heart of Africa. 
Three Years' Travels and Adventures in the Unexplored Regions of the 
Centre of Africa. From 1868 to 1871. By Dr. Georg Schwein- 
fdrth. Translated by Ellen E. Frewer. With an Introduction by 
Winwood Reade. Illustrated by about 130 Woodcuts from Drawings 
made by the Author, and with two Maps. 2 vols., Svo, Cloth, $8 00. 



4 Valuable and Interesting Works for Public and Private Libraries. 



M'CLINTOCK & STRONG'S CYCLOPAEDIA. Cyclopedia of Bib- 
lical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature. Prepared by the Rev. 
John M'Clintock, D.D., and James Strong, S.T.D. 7 vols, now 
ready. Royal 8vo. Price per vol., Cloth, $5 00; Sheep, $6 00; 
Half Morocco, $8 00. 

MOHAMMED AND MOHAMMEDANISM: Lectures Delivered at 
the Royal Institution of Great Britain in February and March, 1874. 
By R. Bosworth Smith, M.A., Assistant Master in Harrow School; 
late Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. With an Appendix containing 
Emanuel Deutsch's Article on "Islam." 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. 

MOSHEIM'S ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, Ancient and Modem ; 
in which the Rise, Progress, and Variation of Church Power are con- 
sidered in their Connection with the State of Learning and Philosophy, 
and the Political History of Europe during that Period. Translated, 
with Notes, &c, by A. Maclaine, D.D. Continued to 1826, by C. 
Coote, LL.D. 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $4 00; Sheep, $5 00; Half Calf, 
$8 50. 

HARPER'S NEW CLASSICAL LIBRARY. Literal Translations. 

The following Volumes are now ready. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50 each. 

Caesar. — Virgil. — Sallust. — Horace. — Cicero's Orations. — 
Cicero's Offices, &c— Cicero on Oratory and Orators. — 
Tacitus (2 vols.). — Terence. — Sophocles. — Juvenal. — Xeno- 
phon. — Homer's Iliad. — Homer's Odyssey. — Herodotus. — De- 
mosthenes (2 vols.). — Thucydides. — ^Eschylus. — Euripides (2 
vols.). — Livy (2 vols.). — Plato [Select Dialogues]. 

LIVINGSTONE'S SOUTH AFRICA. Missionary Travels and Re- 
searches in South Africa : including a Sketch of Sixteen Years' Resi- 
dence in the Interior of Africa, and a Journey from the Cape of Good 
Hope to Loanda on the West Coast ; thence across the Continent, down 
the Rjyer Zambesi, to the Eastern Ocean. By David Livingjstone, 
LL.D., D.C.L. With Portrait, Maps, and Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, 
$4 50 ; Sheep, $5 00 ; Half Calf, $6 75. 

LIVINGSTONE'S ZAMBESI. Narrative of an Expedition to the Zam- 
besi and its Tributaries, and of the Discovery of the Lakes Shirwa and 
Nyassa, 1858-1864. Bv David and Charles Livingstone. With 
Map and Illustrations. " 8vo, Cloth, $5 00; Sheep, $5 50; Half Calf, 
$7 25. 

LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNALS. The Last Journals of David 
Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to his Death. Continued by 
a Narrative of his Last Moments and Sufferings, obtained from his 
Faithful Servants Chuma and Susi. By Horace Waller, F.R.G.S., 
Rector of Twywell, Northampton. With Portrait, Maps, and Illustra- 
tions. 8vo, Cloth, $5 00 ; Sheep, $5 50 ; Half Calf, $7 25. Cheap 
Popular Edition, 8vo, Cloth, with Map and Illustrations, $2 50. 

GROTE'S HISTORY OF GREECE. 12 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $18 00,- 
Sheep, $22 80 ; Half Calf, $39 00. 



Valuable and Interesting Works f 07- Public and Private Libraries. 5 

RECLUS'S EARTH. The Earth : a Descriptive History of the Phe- 
nomena of the Life of the Globe. By Elisee Reclus. With 234 Maps 
and Illustrations, and 23 Page Maps printed in Colors. 8vo, Cloth, 
$5 00; Half Calf, $7 25. 

RECLUS'S OCEAN. The Ocean, Atmosphere, and Life. Being the 
Second Series of a Descriptive History of the Life of the Globe. By 
Elisee Reclus. Profusely Illustrated with 250 Maps or Figures, and 
27 Maps printed in Colors. " 8vo, Cloth, $6 00 ; Half Calf, $8 25. 

NORDHOFE'S COMMUNISTIC SOCIETIES OF THE UNITED 
STATES. The Communistic Societies of the United States, from Per- 
sonal Visit and Observation ; including Detailed Accounts of the Econ- 
omists, Zoarites, Shakers, the Amana, Oneida, Bethel, Aurora, Icarian, 
and other existing Societies. With Particulars of their Religious Creeds 
and Practices, their Social Theories and Life, Numbers, Industries, and 
Present Condition. By Charles Nordhoff. Illustrations. 8vo, 
Cloth, $4 00. 

NORDHOFFS CALIFORNIA. California : for Health, Pleasure, and 
Residence. A Book for Travellers and Settlers. Illustrated. 8vo, 
Cloth, $2 50. 

NORDHOFFS NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND THE 
SANDWICH ISLANDS. Northern California, Oregon, and the Sand- 
wich Islands. By Charles Nordhofe. Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, 
$2 50. 

BARTON'S CARICATURE. Caricature and Other Comic Art, in All 
Times and Many Lands. By James Parton. With 203 Illustrations. 
8vo, Cloth, Gilt Tops and uncut edges, $5 00. 

*RAWLINSON'S MANUAL OF ANCIENT HISTORY. A Manual 

of Ancient History, from the Earliest Times to the Fall of the Western 
Empire. Comprising the History of Chaldasa, Assyria, Media, Baby- 
lonia, Lydia, Phoenicia, Syria, Juda;a, Egypt, Carthage, Persia, Greece, 
Macedonia, Parthia, and Rome. By George Rawlinson, M.A., 
Camden Professor of Ancient History in the University of Oxford. 
12mo, Cloth, $1 46. 

NICHOLS'S ART EDUCATION. Art Education applied to Industry. 
By George Ward Nichols, Author of "The Story of the Great 
March." Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $4 00. 

BAKER'S ISMAILIA. Ismail'ia: a Narrative of the Expedition to Cen- 
tral Africa for the Suppression of the Slave-trade, organized by Ismail, 
Khedive of Egypt. By Sir Samuel White Baker, Pasha, F.R.S., 
F.R.G.S. With Maps, Portraits, and Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $5 00 ; 
Half Calf, $7 25. 

BOSWELL'S JOHNSON. The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., in- 
cluding a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides. By James Boswell, 
Esq. Edited by John Wilson Croker, LL.D., F.R.S. With a Por- 
trait of Boswell. 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $4 00 ; Sheep, $5 00 ; Half Calf, 
$8 50. 



6 Valuable and Interesting Works for Public and Private Libraries. 



VAN-LENNEP'S BIBLE LANDS. Bible Lands : their Modern Cus- 
toms and Manners Illustrative of Scripture. By the Rev. Henry J. 
Van-Lennep, D.D. Illustrated with upward of 350 Wood Engravings 
and two Colored Maps. 838 pp., 8vo, Cloth, $5 00; Sheep, $6 00 ; 
Half Morocco, $8 00. 

VINCENT'S LAND OF THE WHITE ELEPHANT. The Land of 
the White Elephant: Sights and Scenes in Southeastern Asia. A Per- 
sonal Narrative of Travel and Adventure in Earth er India, embracing 
the Countries of Burma, Siam, Cambodia, and Cochin-China (1871-2). 
By Frank Vincent, Jr. Illustrated with Maps, Plans, and Woodcuts. 
Crown Svo, Cloth, $3 50. 

SHAKSPEARE. The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare. With 
Corrections and Notes. Engravings. 6 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $9 00. 2 
vols., Svo, Cloth, $i 00; Sheep, $5 00. In one vol., 8vo, Sheep, 
$4 00. 

SMILES'S HISTORY OF THE HUGUENOTS. The Huguenots-, 
their Settlements, Churches, and Industries in England and Ireland. 
By Samuel Smiles. With an Appendix relating to the Huguenots in 
America. Crown Svo, Cloth, $2 00. 

SMILES'S HUGUENOTS AFTER THE REVOCATION. The Hu- 
guenots in France after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes ; with a 
Visit to the Country of the Vaudois. By Samuel Smiles. Crown 
Svo, Cloth, $2 00. 

SMILES'S LIFE OF THE STEPHENSONS. The Life of George 
Stephenson, and of his Son, Robert Stephenson ; comprising, also, a 
History of the Invention and Introduction of the Railway Locomotive. 
By Samuel Smiles. With Steel Portraits and numerous Illustrations. 
Svo, Cloth, $3 00. 

SQUIER'S PERU. Peru : Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the 
Land of the Incas. By E. George Squier, M. A., F.S. A., late U. S. 
Commissioner to Peru, Author of "Nicaragua," "Ancient Monuments 
of Mississippi Valley," &c, &c. With Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $5 00. 

STRICKLAND'S (Miss) QUEENS OF SCOTLAND. Lives of the 
Queens of Scotland and English Princesses connected with the Regal 
Succession of Great Britain. Bv Agnes Strickland. 8 vols., 12mo, 
Cloth, $12 00 ; Half Calf, $26 00. 

THE "CHALLENGER" EXPEDITION. The Atlantic : an Account 
of the General Results of the Exploring Expedition of H.M.S. "Chal- 
lenger." By Sir Wyville Thomson, K.C.B., F.R.S. With numer- 
ous Illustrations, Colored Maps, and Charts, from Drawings by J. J. 
Wyld, engraved by J. D. Cooper, and Portrait of the Author, engraved 
by C. H. Jeens. 2 vols., 8vo. (In Press.) 

BOURNE'S LIFE OF JOHN LOCKE. The Life of John Locke. By 
H. R. Fox Bourne. 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, uncut edges and gilt tops, 
$5 00. 



Valuable and Interesting Works for Public and Private Libraries. 7 

ALISON'S HISTORY OF EUROPE. First Series : Erom the Com- 
mencement of the French Revolution, in 1789, to the Restoration of 
the Bourbons in 1815. [In addition to the Notes on Chapter LXXVI., 
which correct the errors of the original work concerning the United 
States, a copious Analytical Index has been appended to this American 
Edition.] Second Series: From the Fall of Napoleon, in 1815, to 
the Accession of Louis Napoleon, in 1852. 8 vols.. 8vo, Cloth, $16 00 ; 
Sheep, $20 00 ; Half Calf, $34 00. 

WALLACES GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 
The Geographical Distribution of Animals. With a Study of the Re- 
lations of Living and Extinct Faunas as Elucidating the Past Changes 
of the Earth's Surface. By Alfred Russel Wallace. With Maps 
and Illustrations. In 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $10 00. 

WALLACE'S MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. The Malay Archipelago : 
the Land of the Orang-Utan and the Bird of Paradise. A Narrative 
of Travel, 1854-1862. With Studies of Man and Nature. By Alfred 
Russel Wallace. With Ten Maps and Fifty-one Elegant Illustra- 
tions. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $2 50. 

GIBBON'S ROME. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman 
Empire. By Edward Gibbon. With Notes by Rev. H. H. Milman 
and M. Guizot. With Index. 6 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $4 80; Sheep, 
$7 20 ; Half Calf, $15 30. 

GRIFFIS'S JAPAN. The Mikado's Empire: Book I. History of Japan, 
from 660 B.C. to 1872 A.D. Book II. Personal Experiences, Observa- 
tions, and Studies in Japan, 1870-1874. By William Elliot Grif- 
fis, A.M., late of the Imperial University of Tokio, Japan. Copiously 
Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $4 00 ; Half Calf, $6 25. 

THOMPSON'S PAPACY AND THE CIVIL POWER, The Papacy 
and the Civil Power. By the Hon. R, W. Thompson, Secretary of 
the U. S. Navy. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $3 00. 

THE POETS AND POETRY OF SCOTLAND : from the Earliest 
to the Present Time. Comprising Characteristic Selections from the 
Works of the more Noteworthy Scottish Poets, with Biographical and 
Critical Notices. By James Grant Wilson. With Portraits on Steel. 
2 volumes, 8vo, Cloth, $10 00; Half Calf, $14 50; Full Morocco, 
$18 00. 

♦THE STUDENT'S SERIES. With Maps and Illustrations. 12mo, 
Cloth. 

France. — Gibbon. — Greece. — Hume. — Rome (by Liddell). — Old 
Testament History. — New Testament History. — Strickland's 
Qdeens of England (Abridged). — Ancient History of the 
East. — Hallam's Middle Ages. — Hallam's Constitutionai 
History of England. — Lyell's Elements of Geology. — Meri. 
vale's General History of Rome. — Cox's General History 
of Greece. — Classical Dictionary. Price $1 46 per volume. 

Lewis's History of Germany. Price $1 75. 






8 Valuable and Interesting Works for Public and Private Libraries. 

CAELYLE'S FREDERICK THE GEEAT. History of Eriedrich II., 
called Frederick the Great. By Thomas Carlyle. Portraits, Maps, 
Flans, &c. 6 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $12 00; Sheep, $14 40; Half Calf, 
$22 50. 

THE EEVISION OF THE ENGLISH VEESION OF THE NEW 
TESTAMENT. With an Introduction by the Eev. P. Schaff, D.D. 
618 pp., Crown 8vo, Cloth, $3 00. 

This work embraces in one volume : 
I. ON A FEESH EEVISION OF THE ENGLISH NEW TES- 
TAMENT. By J. B. Lightfoot, D.D., Canon of St. Paul's, 
and Hulsean Professor of Divinity, Cambridge. Second Edition, 
Revised. 196 pp. 

II. ON THE AUTHOEIZED VEESION OF THE NEW TES- 
TAMENT in Connection with some Eecent Proposals for its 
Eevision. By Richard Chenevix Trench, D.D., Arch- 
bishop of Dublin. 194 pp. 

III. CONSIDERATIONS ON THE REVISION OF THE EN- 
GLISH VERSION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. By C. 
J. Ellicott, D.D., Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. 178 pp. 

ADDISON'S COMPLETE WORKS. The Works of Joseph Addison, 
embracing the whole of the Spectator. 3 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $6 00; 
Sheep, $7 50 ; Half Calf, $12 75. 

ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. The Annual 
Record of Science and Industry. Edited by Professor Spencer F. 
Baird, of the Smithsonian Institution, with the Assistance of Eminent 
Men of Science. The Yearly Volumes for 1871, 1 872, 1 873, 1874, 1875, 
1876 are ready. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00 per vol. 

BROUGHAM'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. Life and Times of Henry, Lord 
Brougham. Written by Himself. 3 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $6 00. 

BULWER'S HORACE. The Odes and Epodes of Horace. A Metrical 
Translation into English. With Introduction and Commentaries. By 
Lord Lytton. With Latin Text from the Editions of Orelli, Mac- 
leane, and Yonge. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. 

BULWER'S KING ARTHUR. King Arthur. A Poem. By Lord 
Lytton. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. 

BULWER'S PROSE WORKS. The Miscellaneous Prose Works of 
Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton. 2 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $3 50. Also, in 
uniform style, Caxtoniana. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. 

DAVIS'S CARTHAGE. Carthage and her Remains : being an Account 
of the Excavations and Researches on the Site of the Phoenician Me- 
tropolis in Africa and other Adjacent Places. Conducted under the 
Auspices of Her Majesty's Government. By Dr. N. Davis, F.R.G.S. 
Profusely Illustrated with Maps, Woodcuts, Chromo-Lithographs, &c. 
8vo, Cloth, $4 00 ; Half Calf. $6 25. 



i32* 



! 







LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



0000^034031 



